📰 Spotlight on Jessica Hagen, Executive Editor, MobiHealthNews

Background

-Name: Jessica Hagen

-Home Base: Los Angeles (starts early to align with East Coast team)

-Role: Executive Editor at MobiHealthNews, overseeing the entire publication’s coverage and editorial direction. Also co-hosts Psychiatry XR, a medical extended reality podcast with Stanford University researcher, neuropsychiatrist and professor, Kim Bullock, M.D., as a hobby.

-Expertise: Brings a unique confluence of medical knowledge and journalism, stemming from early career experience in medical transcription and legal work in medical malpractice. Her path through various aspects of healthcare gives her a multifaceted perspective on digital health innovation.

Beat Overview

-Publication: MobiHealthNews, part of HIMSS Media, reaches over 150,000 readers monthly with numbers steadily climbing. The publication maintains creative latitude in covering consumer digital health technologies while maintaining professional credibility through its HIMSS association.

-Coverage Areas: Digital health with emphasis on investments, mergers and acquisitions, emerging technologies, and regulatory developments. “We can focus on consumer digital health technologies also… we can get really creative with it. I think that’s what’s interesting about MobiHealthNews.”

-Angles of Interest: Seeks stories that illuminate broader industry trends and interconnections. “I try to stay very current with what’s happening… If I think it’s interesting, somebody else will most likely think it’s interesting.”

Pitching Tips

-Subject Lines: Keep them concise and news-forward. “If a company secured $100 million in funding, put that in the subject line – ‘Company X gets $100 million in funding.’ That’s going to catch my eye immediately.”

-Timing: Embargo requests should come 1-2 weeks in advance. “At least a week… I don’t really need it more than two weeks out.”

-Follow-ups: One follow-up is welcome. “Sometimes a follow-up is actually beneficial… I would say more than one is probably unnecessary.”

-Story Angles: Focus on sector impact over company promotion. “You can absolutely sell your company by showing how valuable you are to the sector, not just ‘Oh, we did this, and we have these numbers.'”

Pet Peeves

-Overly Long Subject Lines: “If you make the subject line too convoluted, it’s not gonna really do much. Short and sweet… that’s going to catch my eye immediately.”

-Pure Sales Pitches: “The most valuable source is one that has a good background and a good perspective on the sector they’re talking about, but isn’t just trying to sell you their company.”

-Multiple Follow-ups: More than one follow-up becomes excessive and unnecessary.

Events and Conferences

-HIMSS Global Conference: Primary annual event; values the diverse perspectives from providers, healthcare systems, and AI specialists. “There’s so many different layers to it, and there’s so many different viewpoints that you get from it.”

Key Quotes

“PR people need journalists, just like journalists need PR people… I have developed these great relationships with a lot of different PR people and PR firms, which I really value.”

“I love going to conferences. I’m very much a people person. I like meeting people and hearing about what’s happening in the sector and then talking to the people that are developing innovations.”

“You can relay the value that you give an industry without talking continuously only about your company. You could talk about the value that you give to the sector by talking about the sector as a whole and what you offer the people in it.”

Lightning Round

-Reporting Style: “Curious”

-Dream Interview: Melinda Gates – “She has done so much for healthcare, and I want to know what got her initially started in it.”

-Daily Output: Two articles personally, plus editing team content

-Preferred Contact: Email first, reads all pitches but can’t respond to all

-Work Schedule: About 7am-3pm Pacific Time

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