The New York Times has launched nytDEMO, a cross-functional team that builds data and technology solutions for brands. NytDEMO — which stands for data, engineering, measurement, and optimization — is a collaboration among members of The Times’s data, product & design, technology, and advertising groups, said the media behemoth in a statement.

The Advertising & Marketing Solutions Group of the NYT plans to launch a number of new products and tools out of nytDEMO this year, starting with Project Feels, a data science exploration where the intent is to understand and predict how emotions and engagement connect.

Based on the machine learning powering Project Feels, nytDEMO has launched perspective targeting as a new ad product. Perspective targeting allows advertisers to target their media against content predicted to evoke reader sentiments like self-confidence or adventurousness.

NytDEMO is also expected to launch Readerscope, an AI-driven data insights tool that summarizes what The Times audience is reading using anonymized data to visualize who is interested in which topics and where they are.

“These data products grew out of our internal innovations using machine learning to understand our readers better,” said Chris Wiggins, chief data scientist, The New York Times.

[Image courtesy: The New York Times]