The Light Reading group is now much more than the mothership website and the Heavy Reading analyst group -- the family has grown to include the Telecoms.com news site, dedicated communities and wiki-style databases.

February 21, 2017

5 Min Read
My, Light Reading, How You've Grown!

Back in the day, Light Reading was all about the mothership website -- you know, this one, launched in 2000 -- and the band of smartypants analysts collectively known as Heavy Reading, which has now been making sense of the communications networking and services industry since 2003.

But while those core elements of the Light Reading group continue to thrive and grow under our new parent company Informa, the family has expanded in other directions, so much that we now have a digital property empire that's getting bigger by the quarter. (See Light Reading and Telecoms.com Combine Forces to Create World's Largest Global Comms Media Network and Light Reading Beyond.)

So what are those digital properties? Let's take a look.

Light Reading (www.lightreading.com)
Launched in 2000, Light Reading is our main news analysis portal, covering the industry from soup to nuts. And as we all know, this industry just keeps getting broader and bigger, so there's a helluva lot to track. See who's on the team by visiting the About Us page, where you can guess which members of the team have recently had dental treatment. The good news for the editors when researching a story is that they have direct dial options for the folks at...

Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)
Home to the group's very own industry analysts, with a broad range of experts focused on all of the hot industry developments. You can check out Heavy Reading's lineup at the analyst profile page, which features a selection of photos taken by some of the world's leading portrait photographers.

Telecoms.com (http://telecoms.com)
One of our more recent additions (an adoption from within the Informa empire), the Telecoms.com portal has been covering the communications sector since 2000. In a highly complementary way to Light Reading (which leans more towards coverage of the North American market and players), the team there focuses more, in terms of regional coverage, on developments in Europe and Asia, all with a slightly satirical edge. See who's on board that daily news ship at the Contact Us page.

Telco Transformation (www.telcotransformation.com)
Launched at the beginning of 2016, Telco Transformation is focused on the major changes underway at communications service providers as they become digital service providers. Key focus areas of coverage include Digital Operations, Cloud Architectures and Video Transformation. The editors running that ship are Mike Robuck and Adi Kishore.

UBB2020 (www.ubb2020.com)
One of our newbies (launched in September 2016), UBB2020 is focused on the ultra-broadband sector, which is boasting a bigger portion of capex budgets these days as network operators seek to deal with bandwidth-hungry services such as hi-def video and real-time gaming, build themselves a competitive access position and prepare for the capacity crunch that's expected once 5G becomes a reality. Everything from next gen PON and DOCSIS 3.1 to SDN-enabled central offices, G.fast, smart home developments and emerging services are covered at UBB2020, which is run by site editor Alison Diana. This community is produced in association with Informa's Broadband World Forum event.

Connecting Africa (www.connectingafrica.com)
Late 2016 saw the launch of our community site dedicated to the communications market in Africa, which, based on my experiences at the AfricaCom event last November, is thriving and growing, despite its many geographical, regulatory and investment challenges. Tim Skinner is leading the editorial charge at this community site, which is produced in association with the AfricaCom series of events.

Upskill University (www.lightreading.com/lecture-calendar.asp)
With the entire communications industry at the beginning of a major transformation, there's never been a greater need for industry education and training. That's why Light Reading launched Upskill U, an online educational resource that has already delivered key information and insight to more than 7,000 registered students and run 49 courses. While the new academic program is being put together, the archives are still available to all.

Virtuapedia (www.virtuapedia.com)
More than 13,000 industry movers and shakers have registered at this online information source for the people, companies, industry organizations, ecosystems, products and services that are building the new virtualized communications economy. It's a treasure trove of information about the telco cloud community. Want to get in touch? Check out this page for more.

Testapedia (www.testapedia.com)
Our newest "pedia" is focused on one of the most critical sectors of the comms sector -- test and measurement. Almost 2,000 folks have signed up and are helping to create an indispensable resource for the whole industry. Need to reach out to the folks behind the scenes? Check out this page for more.

Women in Comms (www.lightreading.com/women-in-comms.asp)
It's not yet a separate website or community -- it's currently embedded in the Light Reading digital architecture -- but Women in Comms, which has a lot of big names among its list of members, is worth calling out because it's different from the other Light Reading "sections." Find out more about the mission and much more right here, including contact details for WiC's Director Sarah Thomas.

So that's the Light Reading group as it stands right now but pretty soon it'll be even bigger as we'll be launching new standalone communities dedicated to the Enterprise Cloud and Security sectors -- and there's more coming down the pipe.

Never a dull moment here at LR HQ, believe me…

— Ray Le Maistre, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

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