Last week Parse.ly CEO Sachin Kamdar and VP of Sales and Marketing, John Levitt, joined 1,500 journalists and journalism experts at the Online News Association annual conference in Atlanta, GA.
Parse.ly proudly sponsored the registration area, but we hoped to leave conference attendees with more than a sales pitch. Like our product, we value actionable insights. After three days of sessions, conversations, drinks, and meetings, what can you bring back and put into action in your newsroom?
Best session?
For obvious reasons, the Parse.ly team vote went to “Analytics in the Newsroom: What’s Next?” The panel included moderator Dana Chinn, a Lecturer at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, and speakers Todd Cunningham, Director at Media Impact Project; James G. Robinson, Director of News Analytics at The New York Times; and Daniel Sieberg, Head of Media Outreach at Google.
The moderator and audience asked the panelists questions that we consider in our day-to-day product decisions at Parse.ly. How can we shape the discussion around data for creative types, like editors and reporters, so that they understand how the numbers can help them? What should newsrooms be measuring for the most positive impact on their audience and business?
You can listen to the full session here:
But the conversation around analytics for the newsroom wasn’t limited to #analytics4news. Kamdar described the mood at the event, “The healthy evolution of digital media was in full-force at ONA. Throughout the conference discussions circled around how the next generation of media professionals will need to expand their skill sets into programming, data visualization, statistics, and analytics. The next two years should be extremely exciting as these new skills are put to use.”
Favorite #ONA13 Tweets
As experienced conference goers can attest, attendees discuss some of the most interesting topics outside of conference sessions. More and more, Twitter captures that off-the-floor conversation. We’ve curated some of the tweets that allowed our team back home a glimpse into the conversations.
Had a blast talking #newmgmtskills at #ONA13. If you're interested in what I read, check this out: http://t.co/1Gpd2JzOhG #NRN power
— Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz) October 19, 2013
#ONA13 session proposes new ideas for journalism education http://t.co/7SmajPBbNa via @AnushaA100 @EricNewton1 @CindyRoyal #hackcurriculum
— Knight Foundation (@knightfdn)
What’s the secret to @qz‘s success on social media? Slides from @zseward‘s presentation at #ONA13: http://t.co/H6X6i2bVAu
— Rubina Madan Fillion (@rubinafillion)
Miranda Mulligan: every j-school graduate should be taught the history of the Internet, how it works, HTML, CSS… #ONAedtech
— Andy Carvin (@acarvin)
Why j-schools shouldn’t require reporters to learn code: The faulty logic behind a popular theory http://t.co/47Lu7eDVMm
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic)
Nate Silver: Eight cool things journalists should know about statistics http://t.co/5SNnUJtN79
— Julia Belluz (@juliaoftoronto)
Lesson from #analytics4news session at #ona13: PVs and visits are evil. But anyone who says they have the answer is selling something.
— Matt Frehner (@mattfrehner)
@AnnieHammock Products like @parsely are built for newsrooms. Accessible, actionable, & measuring the right metrics #analytics4news #ONA13
— John Levitt (@JohnMLevitt)
And the Winner is… Our Clients!
Finally, we’d like to say congratulations to our clients that were nominated for ONA awards, including:
- Online Commentary, Medium: Finalist, Matt Yglesias, Slate Magazine
- Planned News/Events, Large: Finalist, Israel’s Fractured Memory, Al Jazeera English
- Breaking News, Medium: Finalist, Decade of Captivity: Amanda, Gina and Michelle Found Alive, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer
- General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium: Finalist, The Atlantic’s Quartz
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