Variety is the authoritative source for entertainment industry news, covering film, TV, digital, music, and theater with expert analysis. As part of Penske Media Corporation, Variety reaches 29 million monthly readers via digital platforms, print publications, and live events.
To maintain a competitive edge in today’s rapid news cycle, Variety needed broader data access across teams. Existing dashboards were inflexible, and bottlenecks in analyst support slowed decision-making.
Industry: Media & Entertainment
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Customers: 29 million monthly readers
Despite a modern analytics stack, Variety’s editorial and audience teams faced challenges such as:
Difficulty identifying trending stories in real time
Limited ability to track engagement shifts across digital platforms
Slow access to content performance metrics driving return visits
Dependence on analysts for custom reports restricted editorial agility during fast-moving news events.
Variety adopted Athenic AI’s analytics platform and natural language interface to give teams direct access to live Snowflake data without SQL or dashboard expertise. Editors and audience leads now query performance data in plain English and receive immediate, clear visualizations.
This empowered teams to:
Compare headline and story performance across platforms
Detect underperforming content promptly
Analyze drivers of new versus returning visitor traffic
Adjust editorial and content strategies dynamically throughout the day
The platform was deployed rapidly with minimal onboarding. Variety’s editorial teams began confidently exploring live data from day one using Athenic AI’s intuitive interface, accelerating data-driven decision-making.
With Athenic AI, Variety’s editorial analytics are now faster, deeper, and more accessible—transforming how content decisions are made.
3x Increase in Data Access: Editors and audience teams now use real-time data daily for editorial planning
Faster Content Optimization: Coverage is adjusted within hours, not days, based on live performance metrics
Improved Audience Alignment: Teams respond to reader behavior in real time across platforms
Analyst Time Redeployed: Analysts focus on high-leverage strategy, not routine performance reporting
As media consumption accelerates, Variety continues expanding Athenic AI usage across editorial and marketing teams, deepening its data-driven culture to enhance audience engagement and content impact.
Expand your team’s data access and speed up decisions. Experience how Athenic AI delivers instant answers that boost performance.
