Does Data mining Requires a PHD?

The future of journalism lies in data intelligence, a fact recognized even by a 162-year-old publication. Consequently, when the New York Times recruited a data scientist, it drew no surprise. Startups such as PolicyMic and UpWorthy are leveraging data analytics — and, indeed, data scientists — to enhance their headlines, ensuring they only disseminate content that the numbers indicate will attract clicks from their audiences.

This approach has propelled PolicyMic, a digital outlet targeted at millennials and only three years old, to achieve the distinction of having founders listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2024, along with an impressive cumulative following of nearly 150K on Facebook and Twitter. Meanwhile, the strategy of employing click-baiting — as commonly referenced — has led the two-year-old “mission-driven” digital publication, UpWorthy, to outperform competitors such as Mashable, The Huffington Post, and even Buzzfeed on Facebook. Currently, only Mashable surpasses the publication on Twitter, though this could shift soon.

These digital publishers assert that their articles reflect what online users seek, which is what genuinely fuels their traffic; however, BuzzFeed straightforwardly demonstrates that pictures of cats can achieve similar success as a well-researched listicle about this year’s emerging feminists on PolicyMic.

In reality, the conversion of social media audiences to these startup publishers is what underpins their triumph — and it is the utilization of data metrics to identify potential converters that has captured the industry’s attention.

Nevertheless, The New York Times will not be left behind, and their newly appointed data scientist boasts decades of experience in decoding the most complex data sequences humanity has ever encountered — namely, our own DNA. In a conversation with Fast Company, Chris Wiggins, the new hire at the Times, a biology researcher with a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics, remarked, “The challenges faced by various fields transitioning to being data-driven are similar to what biology grappled with 15 years ago when whole genomes began to be sequenced.”

What is Wiggins’ strategy for utilizing the Times‘ data to close that 15-year gap? He intends to feed it into machines as tasks for machine learning. In essence, he aims to develop algorithms that can predict user behavior similarly to how Netflix recommends films, Amazon suggests books, or biology forecasts new evolutionary traits.

For those publications or businesses lacking a New York Times budget, hiring a biology researcher as your data scientist is unnecessary to target users based on machine learning algorithms. Instead, what you need is comprehensive audience intelligence — and Digital Genome technology delivers precisely that.

“Every action taken by individuals on a website constitutes an event, leaving a data trail,” Wiggins explained to Fast Company. “Consolidating all this data is undoubtedly a challenging endeavor. It offers immense immediate insight into how people interact with your product, how those products can be enhanced, and what new products you might consider developing.

I believe this marks a significant transformation for anyone in any business.”