Data and analytics essential to long-term media company survival: Study

According to the Jordan, Edmiston Group's "2014 Media Growth Study,"  half of the respondents agreed that third-party data and analytics providers are essential to long-term survival. Fifty-one percent of the respondents said their top-selling product in 2017 has not been invented yet.

The study, a two-year partnership with eConsultancy Group, surveyed top executives at media companies worldwide about business practices, including new product development. According to this and other corroborating studies, Big Data strategies and data analytics projects figure high on the agenda for media companies in 2014.

Challenges abound for Big Data for Media strategies

As Big Media strategies become front and center for many media companies around the world, decision makers are assessing the opportunities and challenges surrounding Big Data plans. 

According to a study by Spencer Stuart, as companies ramp up their Big Data strategies, U.S. marketers see a host of challenges ahead, led by lack of investment in technology, 44 percent; availability of credible tools to leverage Big Data tools for marketing, 31 percent; availability of data scientists and data analysts, 30 percent; availability of external data, 28 percent; availability of internal data, 25 percent; and organisational barriers to sharing data, 20 percent.

World Newsmedia Network and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford will address the Big Data for Media opportunities and challenges in its second annual Big Data for Media conference in London on 8 May 2014. Among the speakers will be Huffington Post CEO Jimmy Maymann and Tesco/dunnhumby global data chief Matt. Keylock. Details of the conference can be found here.