Steve Bennett
National Head of Analytics
News Limited
‘Big Data For The Rest Of Us’
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Talking Points
Copyright The New Yorker
• Introduction to News and IM
• What If You’re Not Google
• 3 Challenges
• Our Approach To Analytics
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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
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News Limited
News Corp
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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)
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• Business owner of our information assets
• Strategic information planning
• Data governance (Policies, Processes and Procedures)
• Data management
• Enterprise analytic insights
• Collaboration
• Analyst accreditation
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Graphic Novel illustration copyright Peter Kuper
How most people at News see me
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How I see myself Copyright The New Yorker
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Big Data, Big Hype?
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‘Big Data’ Searches on Google
Copyright Geek & Poke
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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.
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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?
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• 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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Our Approach To Analytics
• CoPs:
– Functionally shared interests (sales, finance, marketing, editorial, circulation)
– National centre of excellence
– Top-down setting of KPI’s
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Our Approach To Analytics
• Corporate analysis priorities:
– Demand forecasting
– Efficiency analysis
– Opportunity identification
– Customer experience analysis
– Consolidation of sources of truth
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Our Approach To Analytics
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Analytics remains a work in progress
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Our Approach To Analytics
• Investing in Skills:
– Standard training program
– Analyst manager CoP
– Hiring skilled staff
– Analytic sandpit
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Key Characteristic of an Analyst
Copyright The New Yorker
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…and a Chief Data Scientist
Copyright The New Yorker
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My Bookshelf
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Questions?
Blog: ozanalytics.com | LinkedIn: bigthings | Twitter: @innovate61
Mail: [email protected] | Tel: +61 413 666 724 | Web: cortexhive.com
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