Dom Nicastro is a Boston-based senior reporter at Simpler Media Group, publisher of CMSWire and Reworked. In this episode, Dom talks about growing up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, finding his passion and coming of age in journalism, Boston sports, digital reporting, and much more.
Intro
Welcome to Konaverse, a conversation experience platform hosted and curated by Konabos Consulting. Konabos is a global technology leader, and while this podcast will be connected by technology,
the glue is human stories and narrative.
Technology can bring us together. It can make our lives better and more efficient in myriad ways. But it cannot replace human discourse and the magic that can happen by the interchange of ideas. Hope you enjoy our podcast.
Akshay Sura
Welcome to the Konaverse podcast. This is Akshay Sura
Matthew McQueeny
and this is Matt McQueeny.
Akshay Sura
Today we have Dom Nicastro, who is the senior reporter at CMSWire and Reworked. Welcome Dom.
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, thanks for having me. It's great to be here with you, folks.
Matthew McQueeny
So Dom you're in, you're covering tech, but you're you're a journalist though, right? So it's a funny, it's a funny mix, in many ways, but why don't we go back to to where it started? Where'd you grow up?
Dom Nicastro
Gloucester Massachusetts, so it's about 30 miles north of Boston right on the coast and it is America's oldest seaport, fun fact. The movie Perfect Storm George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, all Gloucester very proud to be from there. We we have an annual, I don't live there anymore. I live like 20 miles down the road now in Swampscott Mas., but which is a little closer to Boston, which is helpful. But we have a annual festival that honors the patron saint of fishermen, St. Peter and Gloucester and it was a big deal for my family because my father, my late father, who passed five years ago, he was the what they call the guardian of St. Peter. So that's like basically the Godfather in Gloucester. You get the you get perks, you get respect. He kind of led he led the statue you have I don't know if the people probably be more familiar with like the St. Anthony's feast in Boston in the north end. That's basically a replica that we have in Gloucester. So those are very Sicilian rooted community and the family so I get yelled at from time to time, by my mother's still whenever I order, like whenever I make pasta and put prego sauce in it, so she can't make her homemade stuff for me anymore. I have to compensate. But she still yells at me.
Akshay Sura
Yeah, that's funny. I can imagine the family dynamic that so how was it growing up in Gloucester? How was the scene like, how was it going to school there?
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, well, it was a so again, that the fishing community was the main thing. That's that's the main attraction of Gloucester that, that brings in a lot of tourism, there's some amazing seafood restaurants down there. amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean and, you know, growing up, it was Gloucester so like insulated like we are, the only way out of there is is through a couple of bridges. So it's like on an island and we are away from oh, it's the North Shore of Boston and wear Gloucester away geographically from most of those cities. It's not really like connected too closely. So we had our own thing going on. It's funny when my wife from upstate New York, about you know, when we moved down to Gloucester, at first, we were first married. She said, I love this. I love this all your family's here, all your high school friends are here. And I'm like, yeah, that's cool. And then a year later, she said, we have to leave all your friends and all your family are here. So we went through a little more peaceful, away from everybody that knows us community.
Akshay Sura
Yes, it reminds me a little bit about I don't know if you've ever watched this. Everybody Loves Raymond.
Dom Nicastro
Of course
Akshay Sura
It's almost like that when Deborah's like oh my gosh, it's awesome. Your mom lives across the street. Things change after that.
Dom Nicastro
I'll tell you yeah, it's my mother. I would definitely not my mother in the Everybody Loves Raymond mother class. She was a little much my mother's my mother's a sweetheart but I get it I get the proximity of you know, it's kind of a bit much.
Matthew McQueeny
So what was it like, I mean, almost saying you get that New England feel right of the of the insular communities that are that are by the water. What was it like though when Perfect Storm goes there? Like did that just was it like they they came and took took over the town a little bit? Was it weird? What was that like?
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, they did you know, and we first should mention that, you know, the movie was was based off, you know, fishermen who were lost at sea and Gloucester, you know, takes that really closely to heart you know. On City Hall there's a big dedication, a wall, that has all the names of the fishermen that were lost at sea tragically. And the fishermen at the wheel is a is a famous statue that's kind of like the symbol of Gloucester he's he's a fisherman holding a wheel to get the fishermen jacket and he's like, looking out into the harbor, kind of like a protector of the fisherman, you know. And there's a fisherman's wives memorial too for all the women who were at home back in the day worrying about their husbands you know, go into fish at sea. So let's start there. I mean, it's a it was a very tragic thing when they lost the Andrea Gill boat, that's the boat that was lost that that George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg you know, fished on in the in the movie those characters but yeah, when they came down to the big the big deal for Gloucester people was, yes, this is awesome. George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg are here. I don't know his name is the character Dale from Stepbrothers. What's his name that actor you know, talking about? You played Murph? Perfect Storm,
Matthew McQueeny
Is that John C. Reilly?
Dom Nicastro
Yes. Yes. He played an amazing Dale in Stepbrothers. But we loved it, we loved it when they came down. But the big thing for us was, make sure you get it right, be authentic. And they they did a really good job with some of the characters. Some of the characters were a little, little off. Like you wouldn't think that Gloucester people would say these things. Like there's one scene where they get together on the boat and they go, they put their hands in the middle, like, let's, let's do it, Gloucester. Like, we wouldn't say our own town, we would just say, let's get em or something like that. It was fun. It was in 2000 when they came down to like 21 years ago.
Matthew McQueeny
Wow, so does, do those who grew up in Gloucester now. And I mean, you're, you're off probably the last, you know, 20 years or so. I'm interested in how first you got into journalism. And before that, what do those growing up in Gloucester now do? Do they still fish? Or do a lot of do a lot of those who grew up there, end up leaving and doing other things?
Dom Nicastro
They try some of them are still fishing, it's not as robust as it was. They're dealing with a lot of government regulations, which limit your catches limit the season. So it's been this lifelong struggle for fishermen to balance trying to support their families with trying to you know, abide by government regulations of you know, not making sure that depleting the ocean's stock. So it's a tension, it's a tense ongoing tension, relationship contentious with with the government, to try to figure that out have a balance, not an easy thing. But so the industry is still there. You know, the, there are some businesses on the waterfront that are making the most of it like restaurants, big large wholesaler you know, outlets that take in the fish from the boat. So it's still there, for sure, but not not as big as they used to say, you know, in the 50s 40s 50s 60s, you could walk across the harbor on boats. Right, there was so many working boats, that you could just keep walking on the dock and never never step on land. You could just walk on the boats. There was so many. That's certainly not the case now.
Akshay Sura
Where did you go to school? Your undergrad and what what did you specialize in?
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, it's funny like talking about Gloucester's is important for me because that's where I started my professional career. I was the sports editor of the Gloucester Daily Times and then moved up to city editor and editor from the 2000 to 2007 period, before I got into b2b media, digital journalism. But I went to Salem State College right down the road, kind of nestled between Gloucester and Boston. Salem State was a small state school. I had the best experience there from a journalism standpoint, because we had the college newspaper that was weekly. So it was a lot of work. On top of going to classes commuting from Gloucester, playing baseball for Salem State and that experience I put that above any, any classroom anything because, you know, it was serious, like we were, we were selected to cover like the New England newspaper associations contest, you know, for these massive newspapers. So we were like the outlet that was covering it. So they respected us, you know, chose us over the big schools like Northeastern University, Boston University, Harvard, whatever. We're very proud of that and but getting in that newspaper office mean, I skipped a ton of class. I barely went to my journalism classes, because I was down at the newspaper having to put it out. So I didn't I didn't even get like good grades in the journalism classes because I was never there. I was actually putting out newspapers. So that was tremendous to major in communications and have from day one, like, even before I even attended a classroom, I wrote an article for that college newspaper, because I showed up at the orientation on a hot summer day. Like, I want to write, can I write articles? And like, yeah, here's an assignment. Like, I left there with an assignment. And I worked there for four years.
Matthew McQueeny
Dom was, was the interest in journalism. It sounds like it came from earlier than getting into college. Like, did it almost for me, when I got into it, it was because of sports and I loved like, following all the writers in sports, like the way that people might follow Middle East stuff. And that was like, that was all I wanted to do. Sounds like you have a sports background was that was that almost your entry point as well?
Dom Nicastro
100% it was all sports wanted to be a sports writer, wanted to, you know, be the beat writer for the Red Sox beat writer for The Yankees, whoever. And that was my entry point. You know, we just like you we back then, you know, late 90s. It was grab a Boston Herald, go to Dunkin Donuts and just start from the back because the Boston Herald was sports pages on the back. And back then you were connected to the journalists and their styles, and they were almost like, second third fourth professors to me, because I would read them daily. Jerry Callahan, Steve Buckley, those the Boston Herald guys, Boston Globe, guys, Bob Bryan, Dan Shaughnessy. I mean, they're writing daily stuff, columns, game stories. I just consumed it so much. back then. And that was that was huge to have sort of mentors. Like they didn't even they still don't know that they were my mentors. But they were
Akshay Sura
So in those in the college courses, Dom did they do anything like digital? Or was it still like we're talking early? Early 2000s right now, right?
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, late 90s mostly, and that was totally not digital. There was no digital component of media yet. The only digital I knew was in between classes, going on the college computer room, right, and going into Yahoo chat rooms, to argue with strangers about the Red Sox. And 20 years later, was still doing that on the internet arguing with strangers. So that hasn't changed. But, no, those journalism classes back then were completely, you know, core journalism concepts like, okay, let's work on writing a lead. Right? They'll give you a scenario like 30 people died in a in a, you know, car pile up on Route 95. Write the beginning of that story, you know, things like that. Interview skills. All still relevant now. But 100% analog, no, no digital component.
Matthew McQueeny
So, Dom you said that you you came back to Gloucester right. Was that right after college?
Dom Nicastro
I was always there really, I commuted to college. Salem State was only 30 minutes away from Gloucester was a bit much, you know, you'd have to I be in the newspaper office all night, you know, drive home at 1am after putting out a newspaper in college, balancing that with playing four years of baseball at Salem State. Yes, I was good. Not fast, but good. I played. So I played all the positions that don't require any agility.
Matthew McQueeny
Which ones of those considered now?
Dom Nicastro
So so so, so any position that was like in the middle of the field, and you really have to be like shifty and quick and agile. I was a lot thinner back then. But I still wasn't like agile, like, I was not known for anything physical back then, like it was. So I didn't play shortstop. I didn't play second base and then play center field. But I did play third, first, left and right. So it's kind of like, yeah, left and right you have to be able to move but it's more about your arm strength. Where the center fielder can kind of cover the ground for you. Pick you up, you know, and I pitched too. I pitched for Salem State. Wasn't one of the main pitches but kind of like a bullpen guy. A couple spot starts here and there.
Matthew McQueeny
Did you work though, coming out of college how quickly before you were working at the Gloucester Times you said right? Was that your first job out of college?
Dom Nicastro
It was. Yeah so they did a feature story on me for the Gloucester Time sports section like, oh, here's a native that. That just playing well, doing good at Salem State baseball. And the reporter the sports editor back then a guy named Rob Bradford, who is now very well known Boston media guy, he, he's the website director for Weei dot com. And he got, he was the sports editor of the Gloucester Times did a story on me, learned I was in journalism. And I said, Rob, you know, wouldn't mind getting some experience at the Gloucester Time. So he let me get some articles here and there. And he ended up leaving in February of 2000. He said, why don't you apply for the job, take over, see what happens. And that was a humbling moment, guys, because about a month into the job. The editor comes up to me as being a young sports editor, I thought I was great and everything she says. So things are going well, so far as one thing I'd like you to work on. I said cool oh yeah what's up? Your writing, it's not good. It's not good yet. And that moment, you know, she became my, like, strict mentor about just dumbing, just making things simple. In my, in my prose, I was trying to be to cute, you know, trying to be, you know, this eloquent and like, wordy. You know, like Dom, it was just a high school field hockey game, you don't have to be like a novelist for this, you know, like, let's just tell the facts. That was her name is Meredith Fine. And she's, I'll never forget her for that she really helped me right, a lot more simpler. You know, and direct and clear. So I can't thank her enough for that.
Akshay Sura
So how long after that, were you just purely in print media?
Dom Nicastro
Print media lasted to 2007 with the Gloucester Times, and some of my colleagues got an opportunity to be with a b2b media company. And I never thought I would ever leave like newspapers. But 2007 was a time where we were a newspaper business was really being challenged by digital. You know, advertising was going to, you know, the internet and stuff like that we were losing a lot of business. So, you know, there wasn't much room for growth there. And a couple of my colleagues had success, and it was pretty stressful on the personal life, too, you know, it was wake up at 6am 7am, you don't leave the office until 8 or 9pm, or later, covering local news. So that got to be stressful. I was starting a family and just made the move into a b2b Media Company, a healthcare publication company called HC Pro. And I was there for five years before I came on to CMSWire my current role in 2014. So, so three major roles in the first half of my career here. I say first half, because I think if I have a normal retirement age, I'm about halfway through. Who knows?
Matthew McQueeny
So, Dom I, I've ended up living basically where I grew up, but I'm interested in in the place you were, you know, early 2000s media, was there ever a time where you either had the opportunity or like the yearning to go somewhere else? And to kind of get out of the zone there? Or is that been like exactly what you wanted?
Dom Nicastro
No, it was definitely the desire to move on. The being the editor in your hometown thing came with a lot of advantages. You had a lot of people telling you things that lead to good stories, good tips, and I could kind of flesh out the phoniness a little bit, you know, from things people were saying, but it got to be it got to be a little much, you know, going into the grocery stores in your hometown work never kind of ends. You know, you're the editor of the paper people speak up in that town. You know, I had a relative actually, I've gotten in to fights with relatives. "How could you put your cousin in the police notes?" I go "Well, I mean, you know, I would like to not do that but he did get arrested." You know, things like that. So it got to be a lot it got to be a lot so I didn't I didn't mind the come home from work at five o'clock and you kind of like done. You know, you know, you don't worry about it till the next day.
Matthew McQueeny
So the only other question I'd ask related to Boston media, like you were almost coming of age and sports and all that when Bill Simmons kind of was there was that, was he somebody who when you were in the area someone in your place will take notice of? Has he been someone who you've almost followed from this digital point of view, how things have changed and stuff. What do you think of Bill Simmons?
Dom Nicastro
I yeah, I remember Bill Simmons was at like he was at the Super Bowl in 2005. And that's when I got the opportunity to actually cover there was a the Eagles against the Patriots in Jacksonville, Florida. And Bill Simmons back then to journalists was yeah, he was he was something fresh, different, funny, witty, but also good reporter too, great reporter. So we definitely he was one of the ones that looked up to it wasn't like on the total pedestal like I need to be like him. But he seeing him in that in that presence down there in Jacksonville in that in that environment. It was back then those journalists were like, wow, that's kind of cool. Like Bill Simmons is right there. You know. I don't know if journalists have that today. Still, right now it's more like oh my god, Logan Paul's over there. You know, because and I'll tell you maybe I'm fast forward. And so things we might talk about with digital transformation and journalism, but hey, it's to me it's adapt or die right now. Right? In digital information, digital media, because, you know, you have your traditionalist like, like, let's look at the Paul's, the Logan and Jake, you know they're completely insane, the brothers they do with the weirdest things. But guess what the millionairess and they got a huge following. And the traditional boxing people will tell you that they didn't go the traditional route, I had to work 20 years. Well, they're smarter than you. That's why, you know, they took advantage of what is offered out there. And I give them all the credit in the world. I mean, Logan Paul fought Floyd Mayweather, who else has can say that? Is it completely ridiculous that probably Floyd was probably holding back a little bit? Yeah. But I just think it's a I know, it's not journalism related. But it's a nice sort of parable to get there kind of dovetails the ascension of these quote, unquote, like quasi journalists who have just come front and center, through Twitter through other social media. You don't have to work at the New York Times anymore to make a dent.
Akshay Sura
Yeah. So we're coming to the end Dom how do you see the digital journalism being? I mean, from what you've said, there's a lot of commonality. But there's also a lot of differences, right. So in your view, if you were to go back and restructure your journalism course from late 90s, how would that be different? If you were to teach from a digital perspective?
Dom Nicastro
100% different. I would, I would first start with the fact that now, with digital journalism and digital media, I think we're more connected to the audience than we that we've ever been. It's instantaneous. When I was an editor, of the Gloucester Daily Times in the early times in the early 2000s, I had no I truly had no idea what people were thinking, unless they told me or called me and said what they were thinking. Or I saw them in the grocery store. And they told me what they were thinking. But scale wise, that wasn't even the best thing. Because the analytics were like, Yeah, one dude said that in aisle six, while I was getting my milk, that our article was wrong. Well, does that mean it was wrong? No. To have access to these tools, that tell you exactly what people want to read, they want to know, through these amazing SEO tools that are out there. Even just you don't even need SEO tools, just go to Google and see what searches are resonating. They tell you what people are asking. So is that 100% of our strategy at CMSWire to write 100% SEO based stories? No. Is it a huge part of our strategy? Yes. Because again, if I talked to one person at a marketing conference that's great, I can find out a CMOs concerns and great I'll start exploring that. But the scale of these SEO tools and what Google's telling you is just it's crazy. It's changed me as a journalist 100%. Again, like journalism at its root is like, multi sourced, be clear, you know who, what, when, where why, don't leave the reader guessing. Those, those will never go away. Never. But the principles of going after stories now, specifically catering to what the analytics are telling you that people are actually searching for on the internet in your arena. That's just as important. That's just as important as those core journalism concepts. took me a while to get to acknowledge that guys, because I was skeptical of "Come on that it's, we can talk to people, we can do research we don't need, we don't need Google to tell us what to write." Well, once I realized that, it's gotten a lot better. You know, I think about page one a lot. You know, I check stories to see if I'm landing on page one for certain searches. I don't I don't I don't, it's not, you know, I don't think about eight hours a day. But if you're not thinking about it, it's you probably be behind.
Matthew McQueeny
What is the balance, like philosophically, you know, when you're coming from this, this real disciplined, you know, journalism background, but then also catering to what people are actually searching for? There's probably a point where you're like, I wish I could be writing about this. But the people don't necessarily want that. Is that a difficult thing? Are you able to find the overlap between those enough where it keeps you? I don't know satiated for journalism?
Dom Nicastro
Yeah. It's a it's a great question. Because when I write being around this long for journalism, about 20 years now, 20 plus years, when you when you write a good story, you know. It's not a it's not a pat on the back thing, Wow, what a great article, Dom. But when you know, you've, you've gotten multiple sources, the sources might have even disagreed in the article. And you're hitting on something that someone might not be. Well, what's funny is, you know, the, one of the root, you know, the principles of journalism was to find new things to write about, that people aren't talking about. That's kind of flipped in the digital world, you're supposed to write things that people are talking about. But you just want to make your story. Interesting enough that Google puts it on page one, right? It's, it's funny, like if if my editor, my editor, and I had an SEO meeting last week, and we were talking about Okay, what are the most popular searches? Back 20 years ago, we would say, yeah, too many people are talking about that. We missed that one. Let's not write about that. Now, it's the exact opposite. A lot of people are talking about that. Let's write about it. It's weird.
Matthew McQueeny
And you know, it's kind of funny when you bring that point up. You and I reading sports growing up, the sports writers were actually doing exactly what we're doing now. They were all following the same exact thing, the same exact practices. And you were trying to see if any of them could get something novel, slightly different out of it. So it's funny how that kind of, there was a template for that.
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, yeah. When I when I went to those Boston sporting events and did a few Celtics game, I did Patriots, Red Sox, there was always the media you know, the the big stampede,
Matthew McQueeny
The scrum
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, scrum, just hanging around one player like Tom Brady. And I would say to myself, why am I here with a recorder next to 17 journalists, and he's telling you the same thing, and we're all gonna go write it. What makes that unique? So I would always, like when I went to the Super Bowl in Jacksonville to cover the Patriots and eagles, everyone did the same thing. They went to Brady, they went to Belichick. Got all those interviews out of the way. I didn't interview one of them. I everyone left the stadium. And I went back into the stadium to see what was going on there 20 minutes after the game. There's got to be a story here, right. So I ended up finding a couple of ended up being Boston area fans and I talked to them. Why not write do a story, Hey, how'd you get here? What did you think of the game? Like you guys been watching the pages forever bla bla bla bla. I also wrote a story about a sign, there was like a sign that was hanging up that was like, go Eagles go Eagles, and it was all ripped and shredded. And I'm like, this is a sign of the times the Patriots really got to the eagle, you know, that kind of thing. So you were really looking for that unique angle right back then. Now you're looking for let's get into the party, but do it better than everybody. So it's totally flipped.
Akshay Sura
Yeah. So what is your day to day look like? Like, just give us a view of what happens when you when do you start? What what's your regular day to day like?
Dom Nicastro
Well, I usually come in late and I stare at the computer aimlessly for 15 minutes and then I - no, that's Peter Gibbons from office space. But I do I do I do. my fair share of aim was staring though. It's mainly so, you know, most people would know if they follow CMSWire, follow digital marketing, they would know me just for writing articles really. And that we do podcast too. We started that this year for CMSWire. But, you know, that's, that's been like that that was a big part of my day, you know, compiling an article writing an article. But the grind of this job is is reporting the article, you know, finding out what people are searching for on SEO, seeing what the hot stories are that kind of thing, checking social media. And we had a bunch of other initiatives too that I'm pretty proud of, you know, we're doing we have a diversity, equity and inclusion task force for our company, just to make sure we're on top of that. And one of our big, you know, sort of outcomes so far was we started an internship, and making sure that, you know, we we take in candidates from, you know, traditionally underserved or underrepresented communities, you know, so we're pretty proud of that we, you know, everyone last year with the horrific George Floyd murder, we were thinking everyone was all companies were getting together, like, what should we do? What should we do? Well, most companies went with a, what should we say? And they ended up saying things, and we wanted to just sort of not go on that path, and try to do things. So year later, a year and a half later, we're still we're still on that mission, you know, pumping up that internship program and doing some of the fun things so that that's a big part of my day too you know, making sure I'm on top of DEI task force things. Stuff like that so
Matthew McQueeny
Dom, where does that? Where does that feeling come from within you that the DEI focus? Because not everyone, like you were saying a lot of people say a lot of people don't do Is that something that you've just kind of grown up with? Is that something you feel inside?
Dom Nicastro
Well, I'll tell you, it was. I've had some great talks with, as a journalist, I, I did do a couple of articles on DEI, and what that means for the workplace, the business community. But one one conversation that I had a couple, a couple of them. But one particular name is Martha Eliot, and she's a, she's a black woman. And she's been in technology forever. And I talked to her in the past on MLK Day, for cmswire article, you know, what's it? What's it been like for you to be a young black woman to grow up in the technology field, just some fascinating stories. So if you actually Google Martha Eliot, CMSWire you can find that. But last year, after George Floyd was murdered, we had a conversation, I went back to her said, you know, Martha, what's, what are you feeling? And the thing I took away from that was, like, someone like me, a white man can say, you know, I'm not a racist, I don't have to worry about that. I'm fine. I'm not. I don't I love everybody. I'm not a racist, but then it's like, Okay, well back to my life. And not, you know, I mean, like, it's not good enough, I think, to just feel that way. It's a start for sure. But to, um, so proud to be on that task force to actually be part of something that we're doing something. And I'm kind of pushing the members to do more, you know, to see we can get out in the community to actually do something else, the key word is do so we can do our small part that adds up.
Matthew McQueeny
So the other thing I want to ask is, from a journalism background, my dad was in journalism too. And he always used to say that you would have to become an expert on something for a day, and then almost release it. And then the next day, you have to be an expert in something else. So I was almost going to ask, you know, you came from a journalism background, actual print product. And here you are writing about technology, you know, in pretty advanced technologies. Is there is there something to that sentiment of my dad, which is, you know, what better person to become an expert on something than a reporter and what does that kind of transition been like for you becoming as expert on technology as you can be?
Dom Nicastro
Any journalist who actually claims to be an expert on anything is lying. Okay, so when a journalist opines about something like this field. I think and I'm the first to admit, that is really just an amalgamation of everything you've been told before, right. Because I am not a technologist. I'm not I'm not a, I've never implemented a web content management system. I've never helped the company, you know, with its social media strategy. Would it be something down the road, I could consider doing? Sure. I consider doing but I have to start doing it to actually get to actually become an expert. People have asked me to speak on topics even even you folks, you know, you're like, let's talk about digital experience, technology and stuff. I'm like, Hey, listen. Um, I cover so much for CmsWire that I cover so many things that I'm an expert in nothing. You know, like you said, you, you, you, you know, you get embedded into one topic, one article, you put your heart and soul into it, but then you leave it. You're done, you move on to the next. I write what is marketing automation article, okay, great. The next day I write nine employee engagement questions to ask your new employees, right? Because we covered digital workplace CMSWire for employee experience. So it's, that's all over the place. You only need to be an expert in one thing, telling a story. And if you can pull together, the people that can help you tell the story through their real world experiences, then, then you're doing something good, you know, for your readers bringing in different diverse perspectives. Again, remembering the sort of the to the to source rule, that's always a good thing. I mean, a one source story is kind of belie, because only one person saying something to you, even if the other even if the second source agrees with the one source and that's that's something, disagreement is even better. Because then you have two, two opinions, kind of melding together, and then the reader decides where they stand. You know, who influences me more here and why. So, yeah the answer to the question is, I'm not an expert. I'm an expert maybe in journalism. That's it.
Akshay Sura
Dom how, like, how is your team geographically located? Like before pre pandemic? Did you guys used to go into a single office? Or, like, how do you work in I think the new normal normal right now, right?
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, we had a, we had two teams, basically, if you want to call it that, before the pandemic, we will have a San Francisco based office crew, who had our own personal private office. But then we moved into a we workspace, which is still active. And then the rest was just scattered remotely. And right now that's, that's changed. The way we worked office is still active, we can go in San Francisco, folks can go up. I'm in Boston as a reminder. So San Francisco, folks can go into that office if they wish. But for the most part, we're just all scattered now all over. My editorial team, oddly enough happens to be well, there's one new Midwestern, but mostly East Coast people. My editor Siobhan Fagin's in Brooklyn, my other editor Rich Hines in, in Daytona, Florida. And then our new the editor Reworked. Mike Procopeak is in Chicago. So yeah, we're all we're all remote. I've been doing this remote things since 2012. This whole 2020 experiment was nothing It was not an experiment. It was it was just business as usual for me.
Akshay Sura
So pre pandemic, did you guys have to travel? I'm assuming to like these conferences and all? .
Dom Nicastro
Oh, yeah yeah. You know, I would try to get through as many tech conferences that are relevant to my space. Adobe summit. Have I ever been to a Sitecore symposium? I actually don't think I have that's should be on my list for sure. And those and we had our own in person conferences to the employee, digital workplace summit and then experience and then a digital experience summit. So employee experience on one half and then customer experience on another. So we traveled twice a year for that mixed in with like, maybe three or four other conferences. I did my fair share traveling 2019. And before you know for sure, had some lined up for 2020. Of course, we know what happened then. And I used to I used to love those conferences because I would get involved with just, again, this chance serendipitous, you know interactions with people that are using technology like web CMS and digital experience. Tools just to run into people at the lunch table. Hey, what are you doing? Oh, we're trying to implement a CDP like, Oh, that's cool, how's it going? And then you start talking, you start talking just casually and then kind of go in for the journalism kill and say, Hey, you know what? That'd be a good story can we do a quick interview? So I'm almost like a salesman in that sense. Trying to sell them to give me stuff. And then of course, you get roadblocks, like Yeah, yeah, no, I gotta talk to my PR team I'm like see ya later, I'll go with one of the other 20,000 people. But yeah, I do miss those in conference moments because that was, that was good for me as a reporter.
Matthew McQueeny
As you cover this stuff, this, you know, this CMS world, technology is always evolving. What gets you excited about what's getting the people you're talking to excited, if that makes sense?
Dom Nicastro
The exciting thing is, when you have those moments where you know, well, first of all, it's the real exciting thing for me is talking to those practitioners that are doing this. The vendors have a very important part of this conversation, the implementers have a super important part of this, the service implementers, the analyst have a major role and those folks are always easy to find. They're always at the ready for a quote, a comment, and they all add value. But the real value to me is when I can find and the real magic, what gets me excited, is when I can actually talk to those practitioners that are doing the work and find out about their true challenges. They're not motivated by you know, a vendor, they're not motivated by certain research report that they've done. And they're trying to sort of boost it through talking to me, they have no motivation to even speak to me. That's why it's so hard to get practitioners because they have nothing to gain really, from just talking to a tech reporter. But when I can get those moments and learn more about what's challenging them that that's the best moment for me, that's the most opportunistic way of getting story ideas, talking to the people who are doing the work. So that that's what gets that's what gets me excited most is those connections with the people that are using these tools to try to put out good digital customer experiences or good digital employee experiences.
Matthew McQueeny
My last question before handing to Akshay for the big philosophical question is what what is it like in 2021, running a b2b website? What are your what are your concerns? What are what are the feelings of opportunity? It's almost like being a startup all these years later?
Dom Nicastro
Yeah, it is. You have to talk to a couple people above me to really answer the real stresses of this. My job is to put out, you know, things that people are going to either read or listen to. But I think the real challenge is sort of standing out in the noise. It's just so crowded out there. I mean, what, why listen to the CX decoded podcast versus another customer experience podcast, we get some competition out there. Some major competition the exciting thing is, you know, our teams are great at sort of keeping true to that Church and State line. Sales people never, ever once and this is like, awesome. This is such a crucial relationship. My sales team has never once come up to me and asked me to do an article on a vendor, because they need to sell them something never. And I'm like, this is I'm just, I'm still waiting for them to do it. Like, like, why don't you guys ask me? I mean, I'm gonna say no every time, but why don't you guys ask me to do? They never do they respect it. So that's, that that's exciting to be part of a team that gets that part of it. And, you know, working across marketing teams is fun too they kind of go to us and editorial for a lot. You know, hey, we're doing this promotion. Is this kind of resonating? Do we get this quote, right? Is that a good quote to use? Like little things like that? So those are some of the kind of top of my 2021 challenges. It's not. I mean, when you were in journalism in 2000, it was like, doing the content was the only part of the job. You didn't have to broadcast it or promoted. The guys in the printer press just printed the thing and you put it on the delivery trucks, and then you were done with it. There was no there was no marketing of your material now, that's whenever we hit publish on an article, it's like, alright, we just started. Like now we got to figure out how to get people to look at this. So those are some of the top of mine 2021 challenges is not just be an excellent as we can in the product of content itself. But just being being our own ambassadors of our content. It's such a challenge.
Akshay Sura
Alright Dom, philosophical question time. Final question. Knowing what you know, now, what would you advise your 18 year old self?
Dom Nicastro
18 years old? Wow. You know, I would, I would, first I would try to predict the internet to him. So he becomes rich. That's what I would try to tell him but 18 years old. He 18 year old Dom was on a was on a good path. I think he knew what he wanted to do. He had worked for the high school newspaper. He was getting into college to work on newspapers again. And you know, advice wise. It's just a Tell him to work on his speed a little more. Because, man, if I add speed, I could have been that much better on the baseball field. You know, I worked on the other things just fine. But if I found a way to get fast, I could have been a threat, a real big threat. Because you know, I did break the record and for doubles for my college. But the only reason for that is because I was too slow to get triples. Right? So that benefited me. No, I wouldn't have too much. I have no regrets. I don't look back and say geez I wish I didn't man wow. No, I worked really hard to get experience in media and journalism. I didn't just coast in college, try to attend class go home. I went right to the newspaper day one. Like I want to do this. Let's get it done. Let's go. And yeah, no regrets there
Akshay Sura
Nice. Thank you so much for taking your time. I know it's precious to come on Konaverse and have a good rest of your day Dom.
Dom Nicastro
I appreciate the guys it's been a lot of fun.
Outro
Thank you for being during the Konaversee. We hope these discussions gave you something to think about helped you learn something new provided a window into someone else's story. Everyone's story is worthy and important. Until next time, remember to be fair, be kind and never settle.