--- title: The data delusion description: Jeff Bezos has got many things about journalism wrong – but not data --- [![logo (2)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(2).svg)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/) [![logo (3)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(3).svg)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/) - [Home](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/en-gb/) - [Advisory](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/advisory) - [121 Consulting](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/121-consulting) - [Content Review](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/contentreview) - [Testimonials](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/testimonial) - [Contact](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/contact-us) # The data delusion [Alan Hunter](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/author/alan-hunter) 13 February 2026 7 min read **Jeff Bezos has got many things about journalism wrong – but not data** Jeff Bezos has been getting a lot of grief for his stewardship of the Washington Post over the past couple of weeks. Much of it is deserved – but in one respect I believe the media pundit class is emphatically wrong. That is in attacking his attitude towards data as it relates to journalism. In her [Fresh Hell blog](https://tinabrown.substack.com/p/bafflement-with-bezos), Tina Brown, a bonafide journalistic legend, typifies the response: “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success,” \[Bezos\] proclaimed. “The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.” No, it’s not the data that tells us, Jeff. It’s the intellect and enterprise of journalists searching out stories that readers didn’t know and editors who push them to do so. It’s beating the competition with holy-fuck scoops that make readers stop what they are doing and start firing up their text chains.” Elsewhere, Sally Jenkins, a former Washington Post writer and now an advocate for its departed staff on X, wrote: “The phrase using ‘data’ to tell him what’s ‘valuable’ tells all you need to know. Does @jeffbezos do that with Amazon films?? Somebody convinced him that this is a pipeline biz, but it’s not, it’s a content biz that has to appeal to people’s tastes as well as their needs (sic) for info.” My issue with these takes is that if you really look deeply at newsroom data then it leads you inexorably towards prioritising the kind of journalism – original, expert and impactful – that, if you’re anything like me, attracted you to the profession in the first place. First, though, I have to acknowledge that data use in many newsrooms leaves a lot to be desired, which has maybe contributed to its negative rep. In some cases, it has been a driving force in the brand- and industry-damaging rush towards chasing algorithms, particularly in relation to SEO. In this case there was too much reliance on data. But equally there is the opposite case: ignoring the data. If you examine it closely, you will quickly realise that many newsrooms still spend too much time producing journalism that few people want to read. When you mention the Pareto principle – that 80% of impact comes from 20% of inputs – many of those versed in the data around news roll their eyes and say: “It’s more like 95:5.” Too many newsrooms are producing a lot of Schrödinger’s journalism – which effectively doesn’t exist because it is not observed. The irony is that if you look for the signals in the data, you'll find out that the kind of journalism that audiences value – and will pay for – is exactly the kind that most journalists want to do. Again and again in content reviews we have conducted for publications around the world, the same high-level pattern emerges. The types of journalism that most engage audiences are scoops (“holy fuck” or otherwise), expert-led analysis or people stories. The mix and the details are slightly different for each publication, but it’s a near-universal phenomenon. So, those who most decry the use of data would, ironically, be very pleased with what it reveals. Which suggests to me that theirs is an emotional response related to fears about where the industry is heading and a nostalgia for the glory days. I choose to see data as the most incredible opportunity for journalists. We shouldn’t forget that the data is our readers, or at least the closest thing to them. We now know more about what they like and don’t like than ever before because of this data, which never existed in print. Sure, we all want to write scoops, but they don’t come along every day and you can’t build a business on their back; you can build one on knowing – not thinking, knowing – what resonates most with your readers and that’s what the data gives you. It’s not fashionable to defend Bezos at the moment. But there is also greater subtlety in what he’s suggesting with regard to journalism. He’s not advocating following the data slavishly. Indeed, he once said: “When the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right.” He knows, like all advocates for embracing data, that the publications that use it best marry their performance data with editorial judgment. This is happily now the case in a lot of newsrooms, but still there is an instinctive fear that journalistic nous is in danger of being replaced. I once had an editor who didn’t want our journalists to have access to performance data because “they might just write about Harry and Meghan”. My response was: “But that’s why we have an editor – to tell them not to do that.” Any journalist worth their salt will look for a second source for a story. In the same way data is another source to back up your editorial judgment. It really is that simple. ## Next blog post ## [Post mortem](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/post-mortem) [Read more](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/post-mortem) ![logo (2)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(2).svg) Hunter Brunt Media Ltd. Company number: 13546179 Registered address: Aston House, Cornwall Avenue, Church End, London N3 1LF - [Privacy Policy](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/privacy-policy) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Alan Hunter", "url" : "https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/author/alan-hunter" }, "dateModified" : "2026-11-06T17:15:54.755Z", "datePublished" : "2026-02-13T17:00:00.000Z", "headline" : "The data delusion", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/the-data-delusion", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ```