Questex is merging its various telecom blogs into a single product that will carry the Fierce Network brand name, the company announced this week.
The plan was announced Monday at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, during which executives affirmed the new Fierce Network will include the editorial publications of Fierce Wireless, Fierce Telecom and cloud network-focused Silverlinings.
Fierce Network will expand on those verticals to include coverage of artificial intelligence (AI), fixed and mobile broadband solutions, cloud infrastructure, security, Internet of Things, application modernization and other sectors.
“We’re on the brink of the next great global revolution in the communications industry,” Kevin Gray, the publisher of Questex’s telecom-focused websites, said in a statement. “The industry is converging and the lines of separation between wireless, wire-line, and cloud are ceasing to exist. The future is moving towards cloud native, intelligent networks across all forms of access technology.”
The new Fierce Network will include “heavy-duty industry news and analysis” appealing to key decision makers, executives said in a press release. The combined Fierce Network will include more than 165,000 newsletter subscribers, though each brand will maintain a separate newsletter identity for some time after the merger is complete.
“Central to our coverage will be what we’re calling Smart Cloud, which is where the industry is shifting towards in the years ahead.” Gray affirmed.
“Smart cloud promises to be incredibly disruptive because the capabilities that it delivers aren’t restricted to just the telco, enterprise or vertical industries; they’re ubiquitous, blurring the borders between these sectors, allowing companies to reinvent themselves and build beachheads into new markets,” Steve Saunders, the founder of competing website Light Reading who launched Silverlinings for Questex last year, said in a statement.
There will be synergies between Fierce Network and another initiative called Broadband Nation, a new program operated by Questex in partnership with the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), according to a person familiar with the plan. Broadband Nation is expected to debut a new workforce web portal next month to help the industry fill critical roles needed to further develop the nation’s broadband infrastructure.
“It’s a win for the states that have to get this done; it’s a win for the industry, which is short of the skilled workforce; it’s a win for the academic institutions we’re trying to bring into the fold; and it’s a win for the federal government who has initiated this mission,” Urvi Shah, the head of marketing at TIA, said in a statement published by Fierce Telecom last November. “It’s a historic time for us all to step up.”
The future Broadband Nation web portal shares its name with a similar initiative operated by Telecompetitor, which offers news and information about the federal government’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
Disclosure: The author of this story contributes to StreamTV Insider, a Questex publication that covers the streaming video industry.
