Get to Know Metro: Frank Burgos
Many of the region’s most talented publishers, marketing directors, writers and editors work for Metro. Here is just one of the many members of the Metro family: Frank Burgos, Editor-in-Chief.
Frank Burgos was named editor-in-chief of Metro in October, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the news industry.
Prior to joining Metro, he was the managing editor for PhillyVoice, a news website start-up in Philadelphia, managing editor for The Record, New Jersey’s second largest newspaper, editorial page and new media editor for the Philadelphia Daily News, and a staff writer or editor for various publications including the Dallas Times Herald, the Miami Herald and the Chicago Sun-Times.
What brought you to Metro?
It was an opportunity too challenging and rewarding for any journalist to pass up. Metro is unique being a national, even international, brand but very much devoted to local news.
Because we are one of the largest newspapers by circulation in the United States, and one of the largest in the world when you take in the circulation of the Metro newspapers in the various nations, we have access to national and international thought leaders and celebrities you wouldn’t normally get.
At the same time, since we have newsrooms with talented journalists, editors and freelancers in our three Metro cities — New York, Philadelphia and Boston — we can provide local news that is relevant to our readers.
What’s unique about Metro?
Metro has this unusual DNA as a company: it likes to disrupt things.
When Metro first arrived in the states more than 15 years ago, it offered this then radical concept: free news, delivered crisply and cleanly, totally supported by advertising. That’s essentially the business model for the news industry on the web now. Metro was the news on the web before the Internet took off as a portal for news.
I think for the news industry to thrive, disrupting things, rethinking how people really want to get their news and really listening to readers is key.
I suspect there was an office pool on when I was going to get arrested my first few weeks working for Metro because I would go up to strangers reading Metro in the subways and streets of New York, Philly and Boston and ask what they liked and what they would change about Metro.
It was rewarding hearing from people how much they loved the paper and came to rely on it everyday.
And it’s been really gratifying seeing how our web traffic has exploded in the last few months as people are rediscovering our newly redesigned and faster web site. The site’s audience has grown more than 53% as we focus on being the best on the web for delivering breaking news, captivating features and insightful sports coverage.
Who is your target audience?
For print we recognize that people who love newspapers tend to be older, more established in their news consumption habits and we try to tailor the newspaper report to them.
For the web, that tends to be a younger, much more mobile crowd, but obviously that changes everyday as the technology changes and we all become even more dependent on our mobile phones.
Ultimately our target audience is people who live in or love cities. People who find cities the most exciting, vexing and rewarding places to live because of their diversity, cultural richness, and urban beauty.
I want people who pick up the paper to be able to say that Metro gets what makes New York City unique, what makes Philadelphia special, what makes Boston so exciting. I want people to say ‘these guys get us.’
And on the web, I want people to say that Metro.US is the first place they go for news that impacts or interests them because we are among their favorite websites.
Why should someone advertise in Metro?
We are an audience company. We think about the reader first. And because of that, our readership, which is diverse, open to new ideas and committed, has remained loyal and continues to grow.
Who wouldn’t want to tap into an audience like that?
