What made you want to work in the publishing industry?

I am fairly new to the industry. I have been here for 7 or 8 years, so I came in fairly late during the industry transition from print to digital. It is a big challenge for any industry to change so drastically. I saw it as a great opportunity to make an impact and launch something new.

Chart your career from the start to where you are now.

It started at the top of the world, then down under and now I’m in the UK. I am from the Arctic part of Norway and from there I went to Oslo, from Oslo down to Melbourne and then to London. During those career travelling years, I worked across the gaming industry, e-commerce, travel industry, healthcare, sports and fashion. They were all consumer based and some of the most competitive markets online. I started off with marketing and SEO and being from the small part of the world I was from, we didn’t have the big budgets so we had to be very selective. Our marketing had to be spot on and therefore became very data driven. Now I am probably 80% analytics and data and 20% SEO and marketing.

What is the most exciting thing about data in publishing?

Insights give a good indicator of whether the user likes our brands and if they like the stories we are publishing. We can actually charge to produce content we know they will be interested in because we know that they need these products. Journalists now use data as a tool to serve the needs of their readerships.

How do you handle your deadlines?

Coffee and headphones. Nothing else, nothing more. Block everything out and fuel up.

What would people be surprised to know about your job?

It is 70% not data related. In the last year I have spent more time working with the wider business and editorial in particular. The two main concepts I have developed are data confidence and data trust. I can have the best data and insight in the world, but if the journalists don’t trust it, they will not use it.

Walk me through your typical day.

I get in very early around 7 and I start with a coffee. First hour of the day is e-mails and admin and then I run diagnostics every morning just to check that everything on the news floor is coming in correctly. After that I divide the day into 3 parts. Projects, support and I try and communicate to the different teams how they can integrate data into their everyday work. I constantly want them to have data in the back of their minds and part of their everyday life.

What is the most recent photo on your phone?
I dropped off the dog at the vet.

What would be in your Room 101?

I had to google what Room 101 means! Since I’m from Europe and I live in the UK, there is one thing I can think of. It starts with a B.

Whose phone number do you wish you had?

Boris Johnson, because six years ago, he ran me over with his bike in Trafalgar Square and I would like him to apologise. He had a yellow raincoat and a pink helmet on.

Introvert or Extrovert?

70% introvert and 30% extrovert at work and 70% extrovert and 30% introvert at home.

Optimist or Pessimist?

Optimist

Film or TV?

Film

What magazine would be your long train journey read?

I am one of those people that represents the problem with publishing and the opportunity – I read a little bit of everything and the last magazine I read was one of the free ones. I have online subscriptions for The Athletic, The Economist and The Financial Times.