Case Study
Jessica Xiong
Business Development
With faster access to real-time insights, Variety’s editorial and audience teams make quicker, smarter decisions and stay ahead of the news cycle.
Variety is the definitive source for entertainment business news, covering film, TV, digital, music, and theater with deep insight and authority. As part of Penske Media Corporation, Variety reaches 29 million monthly readers across digital, print, and events.
To stay competitive in a nonstop media cycle, Variety needed to expand access to data across its teams. Existing dashboards were too rigid, and analyst bottlenecks slowed down decisions.
Industry: Media & Entertainment
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Customers: 29 million monthly readers
Even with a modern analytics stack, Variety’s teams couldn’t independently explore key questions like:
What stories are trending the fastest?
How is engagement shifting across platforms?
Which content drives the most return visits?
Answering these questions often required custom reports or waiting on analysts, limiting editorial agility during time-sensitive coverage.
Variety adopted Athenic AI’s natural language interface to give teams direct access to live Snowflake data—no SQL or dashboard expertise needed. Editors and audience leads now ask performance questions in plain English and instantly get clear, visual answers.
With this self-serve access, teams can:
Compare headline performance across platforms
Identify underperforming stories in real time
Understand what drives new vs. returning traffic
Adjust coverage strategies throughout the day
The platform rolled out quickly across Variety. Its intuitive interface required no formal training, and teams were confident exploring live data from day one.
With more people accessing data directly, Variety has transformed how decisions are made across its newsroom.
3x Increase in Data Access: Editors and audience teams now use data daily
Faster Content Optimization: Coverage is adjusted within hours, not days
Improved Audience Alignment: Teams respond to reader behavior in real time
Analyst Time Redeployed: Analysts focus on strategy instead of routine reporting
As media cycles grow faster, real-time access to insights has become essential. Variety continues to expand use of the platform across editorial and branded content teams.
Want to triple your team’s access to data and make faster, smarter decisions? Learn how Athenic AI can help.
