Yes, that 'data-drivenness' is the established idea behind the migration of advertising to the online platforms. Yet all the companies who tried to base a mid- or longterm strategy on this idea, failed (at least here). I can't remember a positive example. One of my customers doing that and to be PC, all I can say is they perform a long, very painful 'seppuku' on themselves. They turn down successful (print) titles, get rid of whole editorial departments, just to see that the 'online presence' offered instead of the magazines fails to attract readers and advertisers. The associated cost of online is way over the roof. When they make ready an online publication (and the associated iOS and Android apps), they aren't finished. That's when all the problem reports start to pour in. So they spend the following year with refinements, error corrections etc. Just after that someone pops in saying that the design and architecture of the portal 'don't support the business model'. Then they start a new, 3 years long development cycle - basically going back to square 1. The catch is, that the resources spent on the online presence must be sucked out from somewhere, typically they desert the editorial floors, as I mentioned before. Eventually the portal gets better and better but there is no content, so advertisers leave the place.
On the other hand, there are diehard titles which don't give up print and yes, they struggle but definitely stay afloat. Their sites can be crappy, but they still can pay their reporters and staff from the printed publication's cover price. IMHO this is a much better approach.
www.thewrap.com
