Shaw Media invests in data-driven audience growth

Shaw Media, operators of nearly 100 print/digital, paid/free publications in Illinois and Iowa, has joined a growing coalition of such family-owned companies as Calkins Media, Albuquerque Publishing Company, Frederick News-Post, Observer Publishing Company and Morris Publishing Group in pursuing audience growth, engagement and monetization through LEAP Media Solutions' proven data-driven approach, capping another year of record growth for LEAP.

The Shaw Media legacy dates back to 1851. Today, its brands typically remain the dominant print/digital media concerns in each of the markets they serve. Among the commitments made to its constituents are to provide relevant information to all readers, and to develop effective marketing solutions for business partners.

Thus, customer knowledge, strategic audience growth and revenue diversification are compulsory requirements for Shaw Media. As with many independent and family-owned publishers, major investments in technology infrastructure and related expertise made by publicly-held media conglomerates are difficult to rationalize. Yet the same technological and data-driven processes are equally critical to the future of Shaw Media as they are to large corporately-owned newspapers.

The LEAP paradigm for audience optimization offers a compelling approach to driving Shaw Media's strategic growth and monetization initiatives. As with other LEAP partners, the underpinning of this initiative will be a comprehensive customer intelligence and marketing automation platform, integrating Shaw's extensive print and digital data assets with relevant third-party data, including individual demographics and lifestyle behaviors.

LEAP's analytics team will leverage the platform in the development of a proprietary Targeted Growth Model – designed to optimize the return on sales investments by calculating the profitability of customers and prospective customers – and the engineering of the LEAP Customer Lifecycle Management Curriculum for engagement and value optimization.

The LEAP approach extends well beyond analytics. It includes operationalizing those analytics through the design, execution and automation of targeted, multichannel communications that optimize consumer volume and value.