In October 2022, INMA awarded 30 young professionals around the world with its third “30 Under 30” award as part of its Young Professionals Initiative. This is the 12th in a series of 30 features about the impressive rising media stars who are shaping our industry. 

Meera is passionate about data, and she wants others in the industry to share that passion. Before joining the news media industry in 2020, Meera had founded a SaaS company that focused on reducing food waste using technology.

Since turning her attention to the news media industry, she has used machine learning to help develop analytics tools, led product development initiatives to commercialise first-party data, and now is leading the development of Big Tech platforms’ data strategy to improve and diversify revenue streams through data. 

Embracing data is something that will be critical for the future, she said, noting that while media companies have an abundance of data, they “lack the mindset of how to be data-led and drive decisions using data.” Today, they use it more as a supporting tool rather than a critical function, and that is slowing the evolution of the media industry.

“Digitalisation has provided us with rich information on the behaviours of customers and created an opportunity to become more customer-led,” she said. “As an industry, we need to get better at innovating with technology to serve evolving customer needs.”

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