Chartbeat’s Abhishek Marla finds adventure in the data

By Paula Felps

INMA

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

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Editor’s note: In a new, ongoing series, INMA is profiling our most engaged members — our super fans. At a time when we have less face-to-face time, we hope this gives members a chance to learn more about each other. Today we profile Abhishek Marla, Chartbeat’s customer success manager.

The content intelligence platform Chartbeat is now partnering with news media brands in more than 70 countries, and Abhishek Marla, success manager, said he is excited to continue expanding the company’s reach.

Part of Marla’s professional journey has been to understand how to bridge the space between data and editorial: “One important lesson I’ve learned is that everyone has a different perspective when it comes to understanding data,” Marla said. Now, he uses that understanding to improve results.

When Marla’s not crunching data, you can find him walking his dog or golfing, running, biking, or listening to podcasts. INMA recently caught up with Marla to learn more about him.

Abhishek Marla is passionate about crunching numbers, but he also loves getting outdoors and doing things like golfing, running, biking, and walking his dog.
Abhishek Marla is passionate about crunching numbers, but he also loves getting outdoors and doing things like golfing, running, biking, and walking his dog.

INMA: If you had your career to do over again, what would you want to know in the beginning?

Marla: If I had to restart my career from the beginning, I think the one thing I’d want to know is the importance of automation and digital transformation. Early in my career, I was doing a lot of things manually, and that took a lot of time that could have been spent elsewhere.

INMA: What makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning?

Marla: I get excited to wake up in the morning and walk my dog!

INMA: What is the craziest job or project you’ve ever done in media — and what did you learn from it?

Marla: I wouldn’t use the word “crazy” but, rather, “excited.” I love what I do at Chartbeat right now and it’s exciting every day. I work closely with all kinds of teams from journalists, editors, data analysts, and product people to constantly help bring digital transformation and cultural shift within their newsrooms.

My biggest learning has been working with managing editors to streamline the Chartbeat onboarding process, and helping them grow adoption in their newsrooms to have hundreds of editors using the Chartbeat platform daily.

INMA: What success within your company are you most proud of right now?

Marla: I am proud of the growth in usage we’ve seen among editors that are using Chartbeat, and the impact they are driving from their own personal dashboards. Apart from that, we’ve entered into new interesting markets such as the Philippines, Taiwan, Jordan, and Indonesia.

INMA: If you hadn’t gone into news media, what was your backup plan?

Marla: I am not really sure, maybe become a musician?

INMA: What is your favourite thing to read?

Marla: I like reading biographies a lot.

INMA: What do you find the most challenging/interesting about the news media industry right now?

Marla: Three things:

  1. The road to driving higher subscriptions and the shift from digital advertising.
  2. The importance of data and digital transformation within newsrooms in Asia and Africa.
  3. The role of content creators evolving from content writers to data analysts.

INMA: What are you most excited about for 2022?

Marla: There are many things that excite me about 2022. I’m hopeful that the COVID-19 wave will end and we’ll be able to travel to different parts of the world again.

About Paula Felps

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