10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

About this module

In this session, INMA Smart Data Initiative Lead Ariane Bernard and Product Initiative Lead Jodie Hopperton take you through the big challenges and opportunities facing the product and data communities today. In addition to world class speakers on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, we’ll shed light on the holy grail of using data to give unbiased news and a practical guide to benchmarking functions and products.

10:00 a.m.-10:10 a.m.
(New York time)

Welcome and introductions

Jodie Hopperton, Product Initiative Lead, INMA

10:10 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
(New York time)

Top product trends 2022

Product initiative lead Jodie Hopperton will take you through the major trends in product. She’ll give you what you need to know about product in news media, insights and upcoming trends in new products.

Jodie Hopperton, Product Initiative Lead, INMA, United States

10:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m.
(New York time)

Top data trends 2022

Smart Data initiative lead Ariane Bernard will take you through the trends she is seeing around data for news media. She will give you the ’need to know’ in gathering, storing and use data to achieve your business objectives.

Ariane Bernard, Smart Data Initiative Lead, INMA, United States

10:45 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
(New York time)

The phrase AI is used a great deal. What does that actually mean for news media? Most of the time we are actually talking about machine learning. The data we put in and the way in which we set up the systems is equally, if not more important that focusing on the product outcomes. In this session we will look at the big picture of AI and machine learning today as well as considerations for news media before embarking on true AI journeys.

Kimmy Bettinger, Lead, Responsible Data Ecosystems, World Economic Forum, United States

11:25 a.m.-11:55 a.m.
(New York time)

With the belief that the appetite for news content is high but great journalism can get buried, the founders of The Factual set out to find a data driven way to dig out the best articles and surface them to curious readers. So, what makes news well written? This is the question they started with. From there they looked at criteria and identified datapoints that could be measured in order to score articles. The results were surprising. They have built up a loyal following including thousands of paid subscribers. In this session we’ll find out about building a truly unbowed news product.

Arjun Moorthy, Co-Founder, The Factual, United States

11:55 a.m.-12:25 p.m.
(New York time)

Styria wanted to take stock of how each of their brands were performing. They developed an exercise that benchmarked tech department against a set of KPIs to see where they were, where they could improve and what should be prioritised. In this session you will learn how they did it, what they took away and how they are using this structure in future.

Niksa Gopcevic, Digital Strategist, Styria Media Group, Austria

12:25 p.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

Product teams make big business decisions based on data. What are these essentials and where do they sit in the organisation? In this session, we’ll talk to companies large and small to understand how they made their first inroads into setting up data within their organisations, what teams they built, and what their challenges are now. We’ll cover:

• What data do we need to make product decisions?
• What did companies do to start the department? Did other data people exist in the org already? Who were the first hires?
• How to hire and retain?

10:00 a.m.-10:10 a.m.
(New York time)

Welcome and introductions

Ariane Bernard, Data Initiative Lead, INMA, United States

10:10 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
(New York time)

Among some of the hardest problems for any project is getting from zero to one. Many news organizations will have had some analytics resources for years, but how do you go from scattered resources to a focused team which can take on key business problems independently and can serve interests across the company? From org chart to recruiting to early engineering works, José Meroño built the data team at Prisa from the ground up. He will tell us about the first 18 months, getting from zero to one, and what the team was able to do from there.

José Meroño, Former Head of Data, Prisa Noticias, Spain

10:50 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
(New York time)

How do you take your kitchen table idea to a useful prototype for your organization, to scaling it to become a possible new venture? Mariano Blejman, the chief digital officer of Grupo Octubre in Argentina, will tell us the story of SmartStory.ai, which he founded – a tool that explored the data of his organization to predict winning headlines. In the span of a year, the concept went from ideation at a hackathon, to the hands of editors at Grupo Octubre, and is now being deployed as a spin-off product for other companies.

Mariano Blejman,Chief Digital Officer, Grupo Octubre (Página/12), Argentina

11:30 a.m.-11:40 a.m.
(New York time)

Many cross-functional projects in media are conceived with shared desires for success, but contend with hurdles when there’s no shared purpose charting the course. One of the best ways to align on the right focus is to identify metrics that truly speak to the shared aims of multiple departments, and then develop projects and plans to improve them. Chartbeat’s VP of Product and Design, Jessica Woods, will talk through some examples of how the company’s partners in media have proven successful with this approach, and will speak to the impact of these stories on Chartbeat’s own roadmap.

Jessica Woods, Vice President of Product and Design, Chartbeat, United States

11:40 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
(New York time)

There are lots of product goals when it comes to podcast monetization at Spotify. Some of them internal: How to best use data to create a successful user experience, but also to maximize revenue in balance with the first goal. Some of them are external: helping podcast creators understand their audience and performance, so they can continue to grow. How is Spotify looking to leverage the best of these tools to empower each and every user? Michael Villaseñor, who leads product design teams at Spotify that focus on podcast monetization – after leadership roles at The New York Times and Hearst –, will share with us some of the insights he’s identified and how the design experience is evolving.

Michael Villaseñor, Director of Product Design, Spotify, United States

12:20 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

Overtime and closing comments

10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

In this session, we’ll look at how we ask for data within our customer-facing products, and how we get this data clean, usable, and compliant. We’ll see examples of the best chances to ask for information, and some examples of different ways to collect it within our products and the customer journey. And, of course, how to make sure this data is actually usable by being compliant.

10:00 a.m.-10:10 a.m.
(New York time)

Welcome and introductions

Jodie Hopperton, Product Initiative Lead, INMA

10:10 a.m.-10:40 a.m.
(New York time)

For Product teams, data is both a source of revelation of problems and opportunities, and a place to validate hypotheses. Sounds simple? Sometimes, it is. But there are also many pitfalls on both sides of the check and balance – how we conceive of our hypotheses considering the data that we know we have at our disposal. Gadi Lahav, a product leader with experience across a variety of product areas (from Amazon to the FT and now at Wise), will share with us what his teams have learned to form hypotheses that could solidly hold up to the scrutiny of data… and how to scrutinize data for hidden pitfalls.

Gadi Lahav, Director of Product, Wise, United Kingdom

10:40 a.m.-11:10 a.m.
(New York time)

Through the case study of DMGTs new product Eliza, Ana will talk about launching a new product within a large organisation. This not only involves driving change and changing mindsets, but also calls for a sharp look at what data we use for research and to validate assumptions. Ana will speak about going back to basics talking to customers, and potential customers to gather insights and get to the forefront of social and behavioural changes. She will also touch on ensuring that you are using the right data to measure and benchmark new products.

Ana Bakalinova, Head of Product, Eliza, DMGT, United Kingdom

11:10 a.m.-11:40 a.m.
(New York time)

An innovative data collection technique

In a bid to gather more information about readers Gannett’s Product team came up with a new way to gather information directly from users: they started using house advertising space to ask readers simple poll questions. Learn how asking a question can spark multiple responses to gather varying information about users to build profiles and learn about readers views.

Jeff Burkett, Vice President, Product, Display Media, Gannett, United States

11:40 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
(New York time)

After years of trying to get users to declare all their preferences to us, new privacy legislation has required many a publisher to rethink how they obtained or used data. But what if we were more savvy and actually embraced a more economical and respectful approach to our data collection and usage? Privacy-by-design is as much about the data you seek as the way you obtain it, and Aaron Sue, who leads the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s privacy-by-design program, will share with us how he is getting teams across the company to think differently for the age of smarter, more private data.

Aaron Sue, Product Manager, CBC, Canada

12:10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

Overtime and closing comments

10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

How can data people help product people understand data? What kinds of data should product managers be able to pull for themselves? What are the bigger issues we should be asking data analysts to solve? In this session, we dive into these questions by looking at four case studies of the day-to-day tasks and relationship between product and data teams.

10:00 a.m.-10:10 a.m.
(New York time)

Jodie Hopperton, Product Initiative Lead, INMA, United States

10:10 a.m.-10:40 a.m.
(New York time)

There are many hurdles to scaling the usefulness of machine learning tools – and a big one is whether non-technical users can leverage such tools without the bottleneck of a data team. Michael Morisy, the founder of MuckRock, will share with us what he and others have found integrating machine learning into DocumentCloud, including how they approached designing a framework to bridge the gap between the data community and the self-service needs of editorial users.

Michael Morisy, Founder, MuckRock, United States

10:40 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
(New York time)

Helen Hewitt saw a need to bring data literacy and training to Dow Jones employees across the globe and built a program to do just this. Using mostly only internal resources, hundreds of Dow Jones employees have attended these programs, with 92 percent satisfaction rating. In this session, Helen will share with us how she put the program together – and tips to put together a program at your organization as well.

Helen Hewitt, Head of Design Operations, Dow Jones, United Kingdom

11:15 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
(New York time)

When working in partnership with the newsroom, we need to think of a different approach to communicate data than the way we work with our boards, marketing team or business-driven units. Janis Kitzhofer, the head of editorial Analytics at Axel Springer, learned that the hard way. He will tell us about how he evolved the practice of analytics away from complicated presentations that included every metric under the sun, to a more empathetic approach meant to encourage discussions, and support his vision to “Inspire with data”.

Janis Kitzhofer, Head of Editorial Analytics, Axel Springer National Media & Tech, Germany

11:50 a.m.-12:20 a.m.
(New York time)

Every media organisation should utilise data in their business and editorial work. The hard part is knowing what data to use and making sure your team actually understands it. Chris Miles, data and product specialist formerly with Meta, will share lessons learned from the many data products he has helped build and scale to organisations and users over the years.

Chris Miles, Data and Product Specialist, ex-Meta, United States

12:20 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

Overtime and closing comments

10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)

About this module

We’re gathering so much info on customers; demographics, behaviours, motivations. Now what do we do with it? In this session, we’ll look at different examples of how using personalised data has informed product decisions from home page configuration, to story selection, to “read next” suggestions.

10:00 a.m.-10:10 a.m.
(New York time)

Ariane Bernard, Smart Data Initiative Lead, INMA, United States

10:10 a.m.-10:40 a.m.
(New York time)

Following the relaunch of NewsCorp Australia’s metro daily websites, AKA Project Bob, the team set about evaluating how they could increase uptake the personalisation feature ‘MyNews’. From a variety of research to understand the user issues at hand, and inspired by external sources for solutions, they implemented a number of features to improve users journeys and therefore their engagement. In this session we’ll examine the real definition of 'Personalisation' along with frameworks used to develop discoverability, credibility and trust through personalisation.

Julian Delany, Chief Product and Technology Officer, NewsCorp Australia

10:40 a.m.-11:10 a.m.
(New York time)

Implementing personalization often runs into an intractable issue: existing workflows which aren’t oriented at making personalization simple or even feasible in the first place. Our workflows are often optimized for linearity and for deadlines and usage from that legacy media, more than they were ever considered for the endless recombination that is possible in a digital context. Uli Köppen, who leads data and AI for the German public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), will share with us the work that her team has done in the past few years: conceiving of a new framework that uses personalization and data-driven publishing as the foundation of digital transformation.

Uli Köppen, Head of AI + Automation Lab and Co-Lead of BR Data, Bavarian Broadcaster, Germany

11:10 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
(New York time)

Sophi is an AI-powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail to help publishers identify and leverage their most valuable content. Learn how these smart solutions are helping publishers across the world drive subscriptions and engagement.

Sonali Verma, Director, Business Development, Sophi.io, Canada

11:20 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
(New York time)

We often think of Personalization through its deep learning angle. Part magic, part dark arts. But when it comes to content personalization, we know that there are a lot of considerations to what would make good content recommendations – an area where Schibsted is leading with some of the most advanced work in our field. Within the Schibsted organization, its Content Recommendation Platform team collaborates with its newsrooms to create recommendation algorithms that reflect the goals and editorial sensibilities of the newsroom where the content recommendation product gets applied. Christoph Schmitz, who leads this team, will tell us more about how to make content recommendations smarter and more useful by working across the organization with the newsrooms.

Christoph Schmitz, Personalisation Platform, Schibsted, Norway

11:50 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
(New York time)

Ariane Bernard, Smart Data Initiative Lead, INMA, United States

12:15 p.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)