Chief Data Officer, Gannett: Data Exists to Facilitate Digital Transformation, and Digital Transformation Exists to Facilitate a Business Outcome

(US and Canada) Nate Rackiewicz, Chief Data Officer, Gannett/USA Today Network, discusses how to accelerate digital transformation in a media firm with Amina Al Sharif, Chief Data Ethics Officer and Chief Innovation Officer, Anno.AI. He believes that digital transformation, or data transformation, is a difficult process for any business to go through.

In his perspective, data transformation grew more organically than through any huge top-down monumental movement across several media companies as per their work doamins. He has extensive experience working in a variety of fields, including the television sector (both subscription and advertising), radio, video games, and now news publications.

As a result, the motivation for data transformation and organic growth varies between industry verticals. He discusses his first encounter with digital transformation. He attributes his initial journey into digital transformation to his college years, when he managed the campus radio station at the University of Notre Dame, which was merely a standard broadcast station, and how he worked with Bell Lannon in university administration to take the station onto the internet.

He discusses his 18 years of learning and growing with HBO, among other things. Data analytics drives descriptive analytics to answer the crucial question of what happened. When it comes to predictive and prescriptive analytics, this is where data science comes into play. So, when we bring together this data science, this is where the tough math abilities, science skills, and all that stuff come into play.