CeBIT Big Data 2012 - Steve Bennett, National Head of Analytics, News Ltd

Steve Bennett

National Head of Analytics

News Limited

‘Big Data For The Rest Of Us’

© 2012 News Limited Slide 1

Talking Points

Copyright The New Yorker

• Introduction to News and IM

• What If You’re Not Google

• 3 Challenges

• Our Approach To Analytics


News Limited

• Publisher of 110 Newspapers, 57 Magazines, 33 major online businesses

• Media assets including TV networks, channels, production companies, Movie studios, sports franchises (www.news.com.au)

• 10 million Australians each day

• Part of News Corp the global media group


News Limited

News Corp


Myself

• Business head of analytics, information management and data governance across News

• Co-founder Business Intelligence Group CORTEX - an online community of BI, PM, DWH, ETL and Analytic professionals (www.tbig.com.au/forums)

• 20 years building analytic capabilities

• Oz Analytics – an occasional blog about analytics with a Pacific rim perspective (analytics.typepad.com)


• Business owner of our information assets

• Strategic information planning

• Data governance (Policies, Processes and Procedures)

• Data management

• Enterprise analytic insights

• Collaboration

• Analyst accreditation


Graphic Novel illustration copyright Peter Kuper

How most people at News see me


How I see myself Copyright The New Yorker


Big Data, Big Hype?


‘Big Data’ Searches on Google

Copyright Geek & Poke


Life As a NoGOOGLE

• News is a big company and (like Google) we are:

– dealing in ever increasing volumes of data

– pulling-in more data sources and points

– enjoying the benefits of the move to digital

– trying to better engage with our customers

– trying to ‘do’ analytics better, faster, deeper.


Life As a NoGOOGLE

• News is a big company but …

– We are a company with a long history

– Our business has been content creation (not IT)

– Digital is not our only channel

– Big data to us is more data covering more aspects of our markets

– Data is still data

– How is it different from 10 years ago?

– How relevant is a ‘big data approach’ to News?

– Is big data the answer to how to sell more content in Newcastle?


• Currently we have:

– 20+GB customer experience data a day(versus Google’s 40PB?)

– 20+ major data warehouses

– 100+ reporting and analysis suites

– Collaboration platform with 100+ portals

– 1,000’s of Access solutions & Excel instances

– Every reporting and analysis tool ever produced anywhere ... but little NoSQL.

Life As a NoGOOGLE



Major market changes:

Life As A NoGOOGLE


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Challenge #1: HiPPOs

• News, like other big companies, is a place where the highest paid person’s opinion counts the most

• Without data, opinion fills the vacuum

• Most opinions are based on experience – but how relevant is this in a business where the fundamentals have recently changed?

• Data is a good HiPPO repellent

• Information is even better but it’s expensive.


Challenge #2: Low Hanging Fruit

• We haven’t kept pace with technological developments

• So there is still great value to be realised from our ‘old’information assets

• The biggest challenge is getting decisions based on data

• This depends on getting better at the basics and bootstrapping our analytic capabilities

• A portfolio approach has been adopted – one that includes good old-fashioned BI, analytic modelling, big data mining and most importantly: cultural change.


Challenge #3: Experiment to Fail

• Traditional BI infrastructure has a limited ability for RAD (Rapid Analytic Development)

• We have traditionally relied on skunk works and PCs for much of our business analytic capabilities

• New analytic solutions exceed the limits of this approach because of the size of those sources

• … decision making based on advanced data analysis is rare

• … the idea of RAD experimentation is not widely accepted

• Our strategy has been to establish an analytic sandpit to prove analytic value prior to seeking business case approval.


Our Approach To Analytics

• We are in the middle of a corporate transformation

– Moving from a conglomerate of diversified media businesses to a single company with digital at its heart

– Leading the move to paid content

– Major changes internally

– Rapid growth of analytic teams



• CoPs:

– Functionally shared interests (sales, finance, marketing, editorial, circulation)

– National centre of excellence

– Top-down setting of KPI’s



• Corporate analysis priorities:

– Demand forecasting

– Efficiency analysis

– Opportunity identification

– Customer experience analysis

– Consolidation of sources of truth


Analytics remains a work in progress



• Investing in Skills:

– Standard training program

– Analyst manager CoP

– Hiring skilled staff

– Analytic sandpit


Key Characteristic of an Analyst



…and a Chief Data Scientist



My Bookshelf


Questions?

Blog: ozanalytics.com | LinkedIn: bigthings | Twitter: @innovate61

Mail: [email protected] | Tel: +61 413 666 724 | Web: cortexhive.com


CeBIT Big Data 2012 - Steve Bennett, National Head of Analytics, News Ltd

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