Welcome to PR Vibes™, created by Calysto Communications to provide you with key insights into the publications and events in the telecommunications industry. Today, we’re featuring a short interview with Sue Marek, editor-in-chief, Wireless Group for FierceMarkets.
This Vibes newsletter is about FierceMobileContent and its focus now and in the future. We asked Sue to share her insights on the publication and on the future of mobile aplications in general. Enjoy!
PR Vibes Interview Q&A
What is the editorial mission of FierceMobileContent?
We look at the top five stories of the day to provide our readers with the latest developments in mobile content, mobile applications, mobile marketing and advertising and mobile video. We focus on a cross section of entertainment and applications, so we touch on a lot of different audiences, whether that’s mobile content firms, aggregators, publishers, operators or the major brands. Because of the advertising and marketing angle, we draw the agencies that are making the purchases.
How long have you been in your position?
I started in January 2007 as editor-in-chief of the telecom group, but a few months later, we narrowed it down to just the wireless group because the telecom group kept growing. Wireless has always been my area of expertise, and I didn’t want to lose touch with that. Now the telecom group is so big. I oversee five wireless publications, and there are another four wireline newsletters covering IPTV, telecom, VOIP and online video.
Who is the key target audience? Do you have any breakdowns of readership? How has your audience evolved?
Because we talk about personal content, FierceMobileContent does attract a cross section of readers across several different segments within the media, entertainment and mobile space. I would say the publisher area has consolidated over the last couple of years, but we have also gained on the ad and marketing side. The operator audience has stayed fairly consistent.
There are fewer divisions in the wireless industry now, and sometimes we have a more difficult time figuring out where a certain story should be published. FierceMobileContent? FierceWireless? Both? Where do we categorize it? Sometimes one story can cross over to a lot of different publications. A lot of times, we will publish a story in more than one site, but the angle will be different. For example, a Verizon first quarter earnings story—FierceWireless would focus on how many subscribers they added, revenues and traditional metrics. FierceMobileContent would focus on what Verizon did on the data side and include stats on MMS or SMS. We focus on different metrics so that the information is a good fit for the audience Our goal is to deliver the right information to the right audience.
What is one thing about FierceMobileContent that most people don’t know?
I think people don’t realize that we have 30,000 subscribers—how big our reach is. Also, it’s pretty interesting that the reader comments we get come from such a cross section of companies. We receive comments from Yahoo, ESPN, as well as traditional wireless players such as Nokia. They all come together on our site and read our stories, because they all have a vested interest in this segment of the industry.
What are some of the key topics you plan to cover in the coming year?
The Top Mobile Apps feature we do each year is always very popular. In Top Mobile Apps of 2009, we looked at how apps simplify users’ lives—efficiency apps were the theme for this year’s picks. In general, the CTIA show in October is always big for us, and our coverage of the show is important. Other things we look at are the different developer events, and there are a lot more of those now. For example, Verizon had one in the spring, and Sprint is having one this fall. Also, we are focusing on the growth in apps stores—Android, iPhone, iTunes, the Blackberry market. We monitor those and see what types of apps these entities are selling and which ones are the most popular. Those types of articles are interesting for our readers.
What “value-added services” do you offer? Is there anything about your product “bundle” that you’d like to elaborate on, such as your e-newsletter strategy, Webinars, or blogs?
People think mainly of our newsletters and Websites, but we do a lot of webinars that are editorial driven. The editor invites various players to talk about a certain topic. We just had one on Sept. 23 on personalizing content, which is a hot topic now. We also have a 4G virtual event on Oct. 28. The technology aspect of 4G is covered more by FierceWireless and FierceBroadbandWireless, but people are focusing on the apps that are going to drive consumers and enterprises to move to 4G, so that area is important to FierceMobileContent. A lot of those apps include video and social networking, which is covered by FierceMobileContent.
How does FierceMobileContent try to distinguish itself from other industry publications?
We update daily. We also consider ourselves one part news, one part analysis and a little bit of blog. Our editor’s notes are really insightful. Jason Ankeny, executive editor, has been doing most of the writing on a day-to-day basis for a couple of years, and I think he is one of best writers in the industry, very insightful and creative. I know we get a lot of response to his editor’s notes, and our readers find his analysis very helpful.
Where do you get your content?
The top five stories are either original or aggregated from other news sources. We also have several regular contributors, such as Andy Seybold, Mike Wehrs, president of the Mobile Marketing Association, as well as analysts from firms such as Strategy Analytics and IDC. We also write our own features. For example, the Top Mobile Apps, which debuted recently, was compiled by Jason Ankeny.
We do a good job of spotting trends. For instance, we are writing about app stores. Is this going to succeed? How is it different than other trends? Most of the editorial team has been in the industry for quite a while and have seen trends come and go, so we can provide a lot of depth to our content.
What do you feel the main value proposition is to your readers?
We bring readers the top stories. We help them sift through all the news of the day and tell them the top five stories and why they are important. That has been Fierce’s distinguishing trademark and why people like us so well. We help readers sift through clutter and tell why this a particular story is impactful—why they should be paying attention to it.
What do you see as the most impacting technology/trend for the next 12 months?
So many of these app stores have been launched from a variety of sources—carriers, handset makers, operating systems and independent players, like retailers. From the consumer point of view, it is becoming fragmented and confusing. We will be following how this area shakes out over the next year, whether app stores are a long-term solution or people end up going to their browsers for apps. When people jump on a trend, I’m always curious to see whether it is a sustainable business model and who will come out ahead.
What do you like most about your position?
When I started out in journalism, I never envisioned myself covering technology or telecom—that just wasn’t in my reality, and yet, I have found it fascinating. This is a fast-paced industry with multi-billion dollar companies. There are a lot of bright people and lots of money in this industry. Things happen all of the time, and it never ceases to surprise me. I think I know the industry well and then some merger or something happens, and I’m taken aback by it. I like that.
If you could interview anyone, who would it be and why?
I have never interviewed Steve Jobs of Apple, but he is revered by a lot of people in the tech industry for a lot of different reasons. Bloggers and tech journalists think he’s pretty special. I’d be interested to talk to him and see if I come away with the same impression.
If you weren’t in telecom, what would you be doing?
I live in Colorado, and for several years, I was a river guide on weekends while I worked as a wireless reporter. When I came to Fierce, I had to give that up because I started traveling more, but I do miss it. If I could do that all of the time, it would be a nice life. I met such interesting people. We would take customers who have never been in the wilderness into the back country with canoes for 3-4 days, and it was interesting to see the transition they made.
Who do you consider a role model or inspiration?
I really like Anna Quindlen. She is a columnist and writes both fiction or nonfiction. Most writers do one or the other, but she has mastered both. I like her writing, and I have heard her speak.
What was the latest book you read?
The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow.