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Rob Preston - Editor in Chief of InformationWeek

By Zachary Mesenbourg

BlackBerrys and iPods are driving the consumer electronics industry. But now, they are also pushing the world of business technology to explore new concepts.

That is why Rob Preston, the new editor in chief of Information Week, feels a sense of urgency in showing readers how consumer products are starting to drive their jobs.

“We are going to be upping our coverage a notch in the sense of urgency and depth,” Preston said. “That is going to be the overall tone we bring to every piece of content.”

However, Preston said, people must remember that iPods and other such products are not the focal point of business technology. They have simply changed the way people conduct their business. For example, business professionals like to sync their BlackBerrys to their work e-mail. But, it is the technology inside those devices, not the device, which has truly changed the business world.

“There is the plain fact that consumer use of technology is moving into the enterprise. Chips used in gaming systems are finding their way into business technology,” he said. But that relates into how new technologies are used to push globalization and venture capital, which are the real business issues.

The InformationWeek audience is mostly senior business technology people, Preston said. But they are not just “technology buying machines.” So, he wants to avoid giving the impression “that all they do is buy stuff.”

That is why the publication is going to focus on two things. The first is expanding the breadth of coverage across print and online events, especially through increasingly popular blogs. The second is to change how they are approaching content.

He is not concerned about consumer technology overtaking business technology either. “The consumer technology that is going to end up in the enterprise won’t allow stuff that doesn’t have a business benefit,” Preston said.

Watching the world of technology evolve has been fun for Preston, as he has been involved with CMP Media publications for about the past 10 years. So now as editor in chief, he is excited that he is back in the “fast paced” news world because he enjoys the daily grind.

Pitching & Contact

Preston does not want to get product pitches, unless it is a major product such as Windows or Macintosh. In fact, he does not like the word pitch so do not use it because it makes him think you are selling something. Preston prefers to be contacted by e-mail. For smaller company items, try and contact beat reporters directly, but even they deal with higher-level trends, he said.

The best way to get access is by “offering high-level executives who can talk about industry trends and what their customers are doing as well, not just what they are doing,” he said. “Come to us as thought leaders as opposed to pitching something.”