Michael Moran Alterio's resume and references

Here is my resume as a PDF. I also am happy to send out my resume as a text file, Word doc, or hard-copy print -- just ask.

The blog posts following this one give more detail on my skills and accomplishments ... please browse. But the kind words and opinions of my colleagues mean the most to me, and offer insights that I can’t. Here are my recommendations as a PDF.

To contact me, call my cell at (914) 500-5881. E-mail me at michael.moran.alterio@gmail.com.

Marketing writer at fideliscare.org

For Fidelis Care, a health insurance company, I create marketing content intended internally for employees and externally for doctors ("providers" in industry parlance) and patients ("members"). Three newsletters that I wrote are available as PDF files below:

• ProviderBulletin, a newsletter for healthcare professionals
• Work Life, a newsletter for employees
• HealthyNow, a newsletter for members

I also edit and write marketing materials, resource guides, email campaigns, and content for partner companies. These Web pages were written by me to improve content and SEO:

• Smoking Cessation Resources
• Dental Care
• Vision Care

Website relaunch at aom.org

When I joined the Academy of Management in 2018, the scholarly nonprofit was using a website that had not been updated in almost a decade. I wrote the request for proposals, vetted and selected vendors, and led the redesign process from wireframes to launch. The new aom.org site is now mobile-friendly under a mobile-first design, with a new modern content management system (Sitefinity) that is designed for nonprofits, featuring new video, advertising, and personalization options. The site search is federated and faceted, linking seamlessly via SSO with the Atypon academic publishing platform and the Higher Logic community platform used by AOM.

A year after launch, aom.org site traffic had soared. Users were up over 30%; sessions were up 40%; and pageviews were up 21%. A sample of informal monthly traffic reports can be found here, written to complement graphics reported with Google Data Studio.

Internal polling showed user satisfaction at a high, especially with regard to mobile usage and the efficiency of the new CMS.

Freelance business columnist gig

From May 2017 to December 2019, I wrote a regular column at SubscriptionInsider.com, focusing on various aspects of subscription business models, companies, operations, and trends. Through 67 columns, my focus was fact- and research-driven reporting -- how the latest data touches these issues. In addition to graphical data and polls relevant to my topic, I also surveyed best practices, case studies, and informed opinion from industry leaders and influencers.

All my columns are behind the gate, for site members only, and the subscription to the site in general is an exceptional value. However, here are four that are available for review:

• Global Data: The Coming Age Of Worldwide Internet Service (19 Oct 2017)
• The Ad Trap: Why and How B2B Media Should Look to Subscription Revenue (8 Mar 2018)
• Voting with Credit Cards: The Growing Importance of Recurring Contributions in Politics (8 May 2018)
• Sorry Not Sorry: How Piracy Affects Streaming Subscription Services (18 Jun 2018)

Traffic analysis, web design, multimedia content management, and writing

For FineHomebuilding.com, I performed a wide range of online media work.

I managed daily updates to the site using a custom WordPress installation. That work included editing copy; correcting photos; uploading audio, video, and PDFs; and optimizing with correct tagging and headline writing for more effective SEO. I pushed site traffic from 1.3 million monthly users to 1.5 million, from August 2016 to June 2018. An SEO initiative I launched increased traffic to the site through search engines from 59.8% of total site traffic to 70.1%.

I conceived two of the eight daily, weekly, and monthly newsletters that I edited, proofed, and launched for the media brand. The total newsletter audience reached 2.12 million under my tenure. The overall open rate was 39% and the click-through rate was 15%.

I also wrote posts for the site as needed, especially trade show reports and podcast show notes. Check out my writing for Fine Homebuilding at this link.

Website redesign for EventsAbout

Event-Source, the division of Webedia Entertainment that I headed, offers calendars of events to media companies, delivered via feed, API, or webpages that ES serves. The webpage deliverable is a white-label solution that can be tailored to each customer. The product is called EventsAbout.com.

A major initiative for me was to redesign the EventsAbout offering. Working with stakeholders and a programmer, I managed the creation of a new wireframe plan for the revised site. These wireframe EventsAbout mock-ups show the planned features of the new design.

Media company P&L research for SIIA

From 2012-2014, I designed, conducted, tabulated, and reported on "Managing Profits," an annual research report on expenses, revenue, and other benchmarks for media company print, online, and event brands. Members of ABM contributed very deep and proprietary data for the research, and the results remain private. However, the executive takeaways and a presentation I gave at ABM's annual conference are available:

• The 2014 Managing Profits executive report
• The 2014 Managing Profits presentation deck
• A link to the video of the actual presentation, delivered by myself and two partners

Research planning, execution, and analysis for a non-profit trade association

At American Business Media, and after a merger, at the Software and Information Industry Association, I conducted a wide range of research projects, from an ongoing survey of the size of the industry to analysis of mobile penetration, readership, health care benefits, and compensation at member companies, to opinion polling of media consumers, publishers, and marketers. This SIIA webpage offers a selection of my work in this area; the reports from 2012-2015 are my direct output.

E-newsletter writing and management

I've been designing, writing, producing, and managing electronic newsletters for many years, using content management systems such as BanManPro/ENewsletterPro, Constant Contact, MailChimp, PublishThis, and ExactTarget. After I joined American Business Media, I redesigned the existing newsletter to be more readable and mobile-friendly. Here are two samples: Before and After.

Writing samples from a small trade publisher

During my tenure at Sumner Communications, I wrote extensively on business and technology. The company serves small and independent retailers, from flea market vendors to online merchants to mom-and-pop convenience stores and gift shops. In a down economy, these discount retailers are performing well, and I wrote many interesting stories about how they are doing it.

For FleaMarketZone.com, I wrote 497 news articles over 18 months, formatting each in WordPress, sourcing and correcting at least one photo for each article. Here are a few examples:

• Florida town fights new LA Vendors’ Flea Market
• Flea market shopping and the “buy local” trend
• Local regs kill one flea market in Arizona, and another rises in its place

For Web Wholesaler, a magazine for online retailers, I wrote a feature every month on trends in e-commerce tech. Some samples:

• Building An E-commerce Business With Blogs
• Optimizing Search Results For Ecommerce
• Good Videos Can Boost Web Business

News website management: FleaMarketZone.com

I worked from April 2010 to September 2011 at Sumner Communications, launching FleaMarketZone.com. It's a new site for people who own and manage flea markets, and for the vendors who sell merchandise at them. The economy has been rough on the vast majority of retailers, but the flea market business (like the dollar store business) is doing very well, as it turns out. In a down economy, people who offer bargains are king, and the best bargains going can be found at flea markets.

I have helped design the site, create the graphics and layout, and make the site a real news source and online community for business people at flea markets and swap meets. Here are a few notable posts from my first months:

• Flea markets build community ties with health fairs
• Flea market beats music giant Sony in copyright suit
• One moving flea market dislodges another

Writing posts for an eco-friendly retail blog

Before social media, when the blogosphere was a thing, I figured that environmental issues would be a growing trend in retailing, especially home improvement retail. So I started Green In Store on my own initiative, using Blogger as a free off-the-shelf solution. Maybe it's the thwarted biologist in me (my undergrad degree is a B.S. in biology), but I've enjoyed seeing where this trend has taken me and the industry. Here are a few sample posts:

• The green wave breaks
• Silver linings in green pools
• The art of recycling at retail
• Cave for sale

Writing editorials for a business-to-business print magazine

Although I have primarily worked as an editor, I have written news articles, blog posts, headlines, captions, and, on occaision,  editorials. Here are two, as samples:

• Hard blow in softwood lumber debate
• Pro dealers tough it out

Industry Dashboard concept and design

I recently created a new page of infographics for Home Channel News to run online and on the back page of print issues, updated weekly. The concept -- called the Industry Dashboard -- focuses on key statistics and economic indicators, especially housing starts, stocks, and retail sales.

August 2021 update: Interestingly, a version of my Industry Dashboard is still in use at Home Channel News, now called Hardware and Building Supply Dealer. Check out the 2021 iteration.

Industry Scoreboards I: Tables in Print and PDF

For 10-plus years, I coordinated the bulk of the pre-eminent annual research project for Home Channel News. The "Industry Scoreboards" included a census of the Top 500 Retailers, Top 350 Pro Dealers, and Top 150 Distributors as ranked by sales volume. For each company -- and almost all are privately held -- we researched upwards of 80 data points, including sales, staff, number of units, contact info, products carried, sales breakdown by customer type, and similar figures. We based three of HCN's major issues each year on this information and mined it for background data and story leads throughout the year.

The Industry Scoreboards' core is tables of company data, ranked by sales. The image above is the first page of 2009's Top 500 Retailers data as printed in the pages of HCN and released as a PDF (click the image above to enlarge). A portion of the 2007 report is still online.

I was the point person for analyzing, editing and proofing the data. I also formatted and designed the tables, created the page layout in QuarkXPress, and created the PDF for e-distribution.

Industry Scoreboards II: Spreadsheets

All the Industry Scoreboard data was organized into Excel spreadsheets, which I used for proofing, error correction, project tracking, data sorting, and analysis. These Excel files (along with many PDFs of data, articles, and more) were formatted and cleaned up by me and then sold as part of an Industry Scoreboard data package. This electronic product includes a vastly greater amount of data than we could ever fit in print, and Home Channel News sold the 100-plus PDF and Excel files as a package through sister company Chain Store Guide.

Here's the core spreadsheet of data I researched and compiled for the 2005 HCN Top 500. The original links to that work no longer exist, but the Wayback Machine captured related samples of it here, here, and here.

Industry Scoreboards III: Analysis

I also used Excel to analyze data for the Industry Scoreboards. For example, I looked at how sales and sales growth varied by geographic region. I extracted trends over time in the lumber wholesale business from a national census of distributors. I extrapolated industry-wide sales trends from an anonymous survey of a subset of the industry. I probed how company membership in hardware co-ops changed after financial irregularities in some co-ops were revealed. Here are a few of my analytical spreadsheets -- again, from the 2005 product to avoid publishing up-to-date information that HCN currently offers for sale.

Here is a 10-year analysis of lumber and building material wholesalers.

Here is an analysis of retailers by store type.

And here is a look at different retail segments by several productivity measures.

Industry Scoreboards IV: Graphics

Each year, I analyzed the raw information in the Industry Scoreboards, extracted and formatted key illustrative data points, and created the graphics to illustrate trends. Here are a few examples (click for full size).

Sample pages from Home Channel News

I worked at Home Channel News for 14 years, as a desk editor, online managing editor, and managing editor. At HCN, I did everything there is to do on the editorial side of a magazine: making up issues, shifting content as ads came in and dropped out, coordinating reporters and editors, writing, reporting, proofing, rewriting, designing pages, scanning and color correcting photos, creating infographics and tables, attending trade shows and events, you name it. Here are some sample pages from a typical issue of HCN.