The Ins and Outs of Data Warehousing
Panelists at the Monday-morning NEXPO seminar, "Data Warehousing: Panning for Gold," said that investing in data warehousing can cost thousands or even millions of dollars but typically produces a glowing return on the investment.
John Fee, practice manager for Thomson Technology Consulting Group, laid the groundwork for the discussion. He described several models of data warehousing, a system for taking data collected by individual departments, merging it into a common collection and then making the information available in new forms for other users throughout a newspaper. The goal is giving top managers the ability to search, analyze and use the data for making decisions and planning.
Fee cited one study of more than 60 companies that invested an average of $3.2 million in data warehousing. Their average payback was 2.3 years, and after three years, the median return on investment was 167 percent.
Lorie Schrader, applications manager for The Dallas Morning News, blends information from the circulation department on subscribers and nonsubscribers, vendor-supplied demographic data and details on customers provided by advertisers to direct total-market-coverage mailings and target marketing. In one case, a jeweler sent one promotion to current customers and a different one to high-income potential customers.
Don Stroud, director of management-information systems for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, finds that different departments vary in how much they use the newspaper's database. While advertising staffers focus on tracking their sales and bonuses, accounting and circulation workers use Microsoft Access to create sophisticated reports on revenue, single-copy history and customer service.
Steven C. Hannah, vice president of information technology at The Gazette Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, described how his firm's newspaper, broadcast, new-media and shopper divisions use the data they collect on households and businesses in the region. All departments at The Gazette, including editorial, use the data. For one story involving a Cedar Rapids man who attacked and killed several coworkers, journalists consulted the database before they went to the killer's street. Reporters knocked first on the doors of neighbors who subscribed to the paper and received a more receptive response than usual.
Elise Burroughs, Presstime executive editor. E-mail, burre@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1678; fax, (703) 902-1690.