I've been working in media since
the late 1980s. I broke into media in Silicon Valley - which gave me a predilection for digital content when it was still
in its infancy. I moved to New York in 1994 to work in America's media capital and shift my focus from just covering technology
to broader swaths of business. I've been working primarily in B2B ever since - including financial services, real estate,
the small/medium business segment, as well as technology. (Check out my CV for details.)
Strategic Direction
From 2002 until 2010, I worked as a member of senior management
for the subscription Web content pioneer Money-Media building daily news publications targeting money managers. That experience
taught me the power of the subscription business model and the numerous details that you have to get right to make it work.
Once subscription revenue covered our costs plus "basic" profit, we augmented it with $3 million of advertising
revenue and other services. One such service was the Job Blast premium job posting service that I developed
for Ignites and FundFire - and grew to a $700,000 line of business. We sold the business in 2008 to the
Financial Times of London for $64 million.
Audience Engagement
After Money-Media's
sale to the Financial Times, I continued working for the FT developing Web 2.0 features (reader polls and discussions, live
audio and video webinars) as well as data feeds from eVestment Alliance - the leading provider
of data about the separate account managers who run money for pensions, foundations, and endowments.
Editorial
Team Building
I've had to build editorial teams at several publications, including Small Business
Computing, FundFire and Ignites. Build the talent internally. Build it by recruiting. Either way, you
need to have the right people in place to succeed with a subscription model.
Content Development
Working in media as diverse as print, online, and video (both as producer and talent), I advocate creating content that
gets into the perspective of the audience. They're coming to learn. I want to produce content that is good enough to hold
them there - whether it's an interview, a group discussion, a short news item or a written feature.