We kept the interviews going, delving more into the practice of audience development. Organizations with a paywall or those considering a paywall were already doing very sophisticated analyses on audience data and propensity modelling and understanding segments of ‘quality’ traffic. At other organizations, the role resided with an individual, perhaps a social media manager or audience development manager with more of an ad hoc approach, but the mandate was consistent: find an audience that will visit our site regularly.

Last fall, the Chartbeat product team was hunkered down in an office space that could’ve made an excellent interrogation room. We temporarily obtained this 500 square-foot room to augment our…