From a New York Times story, “Sex Still Sells, but Data Rules,” about how Jessica Pels, the new editor of Cosmopolitan, hopes to save its print edition in the digital age:
Mr. Young has provided for the company an internal data analyzing product that staffers refer to as Hans (“Hearst answers”). Staffers can enter a question into a Hans Slack channel, asking for sliced-and-diced information as they might a salad at the airy company cafeteria.
Ms. Pels, for example, might message the Hans bot asking what is the day’s best-performing e-commerce item or which print magazine story is drawing the highest numbers online at a particular time of day.
“And he will answer, which is really cool,” she said.
For all the meeting time spent on print cover lines, they are now far less important than trying to create a social-media moment that will bring readers to the Cosmo website.
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