Data & Insights Services

We have extensive experience designing and delivering qualitative and quantitative primary research to help them understand and anticipate key market trends. We have researched topics including younger audience behaviour, willingness to pay for content (and price sensitivity) and the financial sustainability of the global news industry. In practice, this often means co-designing the research methodology with the client, executing the field research and then analysing the findings. Next Gen News is an example of an eight-month qualitative research project that aimed to better understand the future of news consumption in 2030 (in collaboration with the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern and the Google News Initiative). In addition, we have expertise in external promotion and distribution via our large and engaged network.

We provide hands-on support to help organisations assess and upgrade their data capabilities. We have experience developing and coding bespoke metrics (such as engagement scores and LTV), building machine-learning models (such as dynamic paywall logic) and benchmarking existing data flows and infrastructure. During these projects we often embed our expert Data Scientists or Data Analysts within the client organisation to support successful implementation. One example of our work is helping a leading European news organisation to productionise a machine learning model for churn prediction and prevention; this model built over a few weeks, has been proven to outperform those of other popular paywall vendors and contributed to a 50% reduction in their churn rate.

We provide organisations with an independent data-led view of how their business is performing compared to the market. We currently offer three options: 1) The Financial Sustainability Healthcheck; 2) The Audience Reach and Engagement Healthcheck; 3) Pricing, Proposition and Promotion Healthcheck. These Healthchecks combine financial data, audience analytics, content analytics, audience research and proprietary industry benchmarks to provide a clear view to executives on which areas are outperforming and underperforming. One example of how we have used advanced analytics and benchmarking to improve product and pricing strategies can be found here.

We help organisations targeting the media industry to grow their sales pipeline through the creation and distribution of original thought leadership. Our combination of strong brand recognition, industry-leading research capabilities and an engaged network of over 50,000 leading media professionals make us the perfect growth partner. For example, we have a three-year-long partnership with Minna Technologies (a market leader in subscription management tooling) to produce a ‘State of the Nation’ report on the subscription economy each year to help them expand their client base and generate hundreds of new leads.