Today, the three vital voices of the media business – content creators, audience members and marketers – now “publish” together. Learn how leading editors are rewriting the rules of digital content through analytics, audience development and programming.

I very much believe publishers can apply a more balanced content promotion strategy while continuing to be financially successful, simply by marrying the Editor with proper decision support, not by eliminating the editor all together. It seems naive to present, as we see so often, two polarized options only:

A) Machine learned personalization (which can only be achieved through 100% automation) and

B) Editors fueled by gut feel and diet coke (hand curated stories selected for the homepage).

From April 2-5, the North American newspaper industry will gather in Washington DC for three events: NAA mediaXchange, ASNE2012, and the AP Annual Luncheon and Meeting.

We’ll be in town to share our vision of the data driven newsroom with publishers and editors. If you’re attending, come check out how the Visual Revenue content recommendation platform helps editors program the homepage and make the most out of their existing content and layout – we are at booth #610.

We are constantly asked whether there is any reason to apply the thinking of a data driven newsroom – and that of progressive front programming in particular to media organizations using paywall’s in some way, shape or form.

Article selection and front page programming, whether that is a completely manual hand curated experience or one of sophisticated data modeling on audience and previous editorial tone, is very much something that impacts the paywall business case.

Publishers do not predict customer demand for content, nor do they perform traditional market research like Nike would for a new pair of sneakers. You’ve probably never heard of a publisher applying six sigma strategies to how it produces content. And when publishers promote their content, it’s rarely with the same rigor and aggression as MARS fighting for shelf space at Wal-Mart. Why not?

We are ruined by our own biases. When making decisions, we see what we want, ignore probabilities, and minimize risks that uproot our hopes.