My friend Daniel Ceniceros knows media. He has worked in it for most of his career. He has also spent time in the CRE tech sector. In this blog, I write a lot about the challenges facing media. Daniel, however, seems to have figured it out. His site/company, Connect Media, is expanding big time while others are contracting.

I asked him a few questions to really understand what he is doing, why it's working and what his expansion plans are.

Michael: What’s your background?

Daniel: I was born and raised in commercial real estate. I started working for a CRE agency fresh out of college and Art Center and then I jumped into the internet, starting with GlobeSt.com. This was before commercial real estate had websites. From there, I ran the regional publications like Real Estate Southern California and Real Estate New York, and the RealShare conference series. I spent two years with a CRE technology company, and then I started Connect Media.

M: When and why did you start Connect Media?

D: After spending 15 years living and breathing media, I started to see the gaps. We went from a speedboat to an aircraft carrier and couldn’t make the nimble decisions we wanted to. I started Connect in late 2014 and built it around working with the industry and closing the gaps, responding to the feedback we received. There’s too much information out there and not enough time to consume it all. We provide timely, digestible information and efficient networking.

M: How do you source your content? What is your editorial strategy?

D: First, everyone on the Connect content team are industry experts. They have all been covering CRE for most of their careers and have deep relationships. We have a total of over 50 years of combined commercial real estate reporting experience, and we receive hundreds of press releases and deals directly from the source each day. Every day, we have an editorial ranking system and put together the best stories, by market, without overwhelming our readers. All of our stories are under 150 words, and we connect you straight to the source and to the people who are mentioned in the story. We don’t do paid content; we focus on what’s newsworthy to the industry.

M: Tell us about your New York launch.

D: Real estate is a regional business. Even though we’re national, you don’t have the nation until you have the Big Apple. It was the perfect fit for us after launching in California, Texas, and National. There’s a lot of media sources out there, especially in New York, and we bring it all together in one email with everything you need to know. We have a boots on the ground approach in all of our markets. We just brought on our editor in NY and expanded our conference team, so you’ll be seeing a lot more from Connect in New York as the year goes on.

M: What’s next for Connect Media?

D: We’ll continue to expand with the news and events into more markets like the Midwest and the Southeast, and we’re going to be adding new options that serve every facet of the industry, from property marketing, dedicated sector coverage, market research, as well as expand our new media, drone and video agency work. We’ll also be busy with our 20 events this year!

Connect with Daniel on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.