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Audience and content metrics, analytics, workflows for news media

Smart Data Initiative

Sharing insights and best practices on creating value with data analytics for media companies and incorporating a data-positive culture across organisations

Scope of the Initiative

Tying data to business strategy

Data plays a critical role in accelerating digital transformation of news media. We surface best ways to align data initiatives to editorial and business objectives. Build a business case for the investment in data infrastructure and partnerships.

Practical applications

Armed with data insights and through rigorous experimentation, news publishers aspire to engage audiences better, grow reader revenue and reinvent advertising in the post-third-party cookie era. Benchmark your efforts with the peers. Discover opportunities. Scale experiments.

Data fundamentals

New tech and data infrastructure becomes a backbone for digital publishing. Understand the technology stack required to enable monetisation. Register, log in your audiences to unlock the value.

Advances in data analytics

Thanks to machine learning and AI, publishers learn more about customers and their journeys, predict behaviours, and segment them to better fit their products, services, and their marketing mix. Unleash the potential of new methods and technologies.

Data-positive culture

As media companies reset their internal culture around engagement, they democratise the use of data for decision-making and make it central to their day-to-day work. Share ideas and inspire change at your organisation.

Deliverables

Newsletter

Subscribe to a bi-weekly Smart Data Initiative newsletter. Sign up here

Slack channel

Get the latest news, insights, and meet your peers. Sign up here

Video meet-ups

Join our debates at the bi-monthly members-only meetings. See schedule here



Reports

Access our global membership’s vast learnings distilled into good reads.

Master Classes

Link to the best data minds, exchange ideas at master classes focused on transforming what we do with data and transforming how we work and our business using data. Register now

Ask Me Anything

For corporate members of INMA, connect your data teams with Ariane Bernard for private mentoring.




Smart Data Initiative Lead

Heading the Smart Data Initiative for INMA is Ariane Bernard, a consultant who focuses on publishing utilities and data projects. She is the CEO of a young incubated company, Helio.cloud. She previously served as chief digital officer at Le Parisien, product lead for editorial products at Taboola, and held a variety of roles during her 14 years at The New York Times. Ariane has served on the board of Le Geste, the French trade union for internet publishers.

Smart Data Initiative Advisory Council

  • Christian Ammendola
    Head of Data, Analytics & AI
    NZZ
    Switzerland
  • Violette Chomier
    Chief Data Officer
    Les Echos – Le Parisien
    France
  • Karine Serfaty
    Chief Data Officer
    The Economist
    United Kingdom
  • John Souleles
    Chief Data Officer
    Torstar
    Canada
  • Kendell Timmers
    SVP and Head of Data & Insights
    The New York Times
    United States
Mission

INMA's Smart Data Initiative aspires to provide a blueprint for revolutionising publishers’ value propositions, operating and monetisation models, while maintaining their missions and values. We aim to transform the online news business and make journalism sustainable by helping publishers analyse and act on data in new and creative ways.