Get to know Pocketnow’s Anton D. Nagy

Pocketnow Insider isn’t just about video. It’s a collection of posts that offers a glimpse behind the scenes of Pocketnow – and a brief look into the lives of the people behind it. This new recurring text series offers you the opportunity to get to know our editors better, outside the scope of their work here on the site.

Our first installment features Managing Editor Editor-in-Chief Anton D. Nagy. You’ll find out about his background, interests, and activities – and a bit about his duties here on Pocketnow as well. We hope you enjoy this new series documenting the lives of the people who keep Pocketnow running!

•

Updated on December 28, 2013, to reflect new position within the organization.

I’m Anton D. Nagy, Managing Editor Editor-in-Chief of Pocketnow. You all know that by now, but there’s a lot you don’t know about me. I’ll try to keep it short and interesting. Hopefully, at the end of this Curriculum Vitae, you’ll know me just a little bit better.

The early days

It all started back in September 30, 1980, in a town called Oradea, north-western Romania, just a stone’s throw away from the Hungarian border. Actually, it all started around either 1979’s Christmas or New Year’s Eve, if my calculations are right, but that’s a different topic. ?

Being born in 1980, and growing up in the 80s and 90s, is probably what I would have asked for if things weren’t this way. VCRs, Disco music, 80s rock and part of the Western culture broke through the Iron Curtain, so when communism fell in Romania in 1989, even though I was still 9, the first bricks of my foundation were laid. Family, society, and the heavy import of everything western did the rest.

I don’t really have memories from kindergarten through middle-school, except one thing that made me a “handy-man”. I was born into a family with heavy tradition in modeling, from airplanes, to rockets, boats, and cars. This wasn’t a hobby; both my father and my grandfather (who was actually a pioneer of this discipline in the region) were already established and recognized sportsmen. Needless to say, that by the time I turned 5 I was flying airplane models (at first, whether I liked it or not), and driving R/C race-cars. Fast-forward a lot and I find great pleasure in looking at my trophy collection.

My high-school concentration was philology and I was lucky (or unlucky, depending on when you asked me) to be one of the four guys in a class of 30 students. Graduated in 1999, the exact same year that I started my four-year law-school journey at the University of Oradea (where the male-female ratio never changed).

After four years of combining all the things a young man at my age could have done (some stupid, some irrational, but definitely all in the name of fun) with a truck’s worth of books, treaties, laws, practices, and alike, I graduated in 2003, getting my law degree.

Work

I didn’t waste too much time between my studies and work, even though I planned to. The opportunity has presented itself, out of nowhere, to work for a major sports brand as a Country Sales Manager. I didn’t know anything about sales, or management, but I have accumulated an enormous baggage of psychology skills, which combined with the art of negotiation, and my knowledge of commercial law, made me think of it as a piece of cake (being young, and feeling on top of the world, at 25, also helped). Needless to say, I was wrong!

I was never the one to walk away when things got tough, so I sucked it up and spent two extraordinary years absorbing everything life had to teach me, like a sponge. 2005 was the year I switched workplaces, becoming a legal counselor for a small, but successful, advertising and marketing production and services firm. While applying my knowledge in law, my sponge-like brain continued to absorb everything, this time adding advertising and marketing principles and practices. And more management!

Through those years, from 2005 to 2007 to be more specific, I was also studying. The number of books and treaties increased, fun-time decreased, and in 2007 I got my Master’s degree in Criminal Law.

Back at work, I quickly realized that I wanted more, so in 2006 I started working as a Regional Foreign Sales Manager for a rather large company. Main activity was food production, and I had to sell it (a lot of it).

Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, and San Marino (I’m sure I left out some) are all countries to where I traveled a lot. Business meetings and trade shows were all fun and work, but meeting people, and seeing places, was definitely something I would have wished for if it never happened. Every country I travelled to had at least 3, sometimes up to 7 or 8, clients I was responsible for, and they were scattered all over, from the capital cities to the country side.

The XDA Developers days

Traveling a lot, exclusively by car, I quickly realized that unfolding a map on the dashbpard is not always a good idea. I didn’t wait for the company to equip me with a GPS so at the end of 2006 I got my own PDA, an ASUS MyPal A636, running Windows Mobile 5.0 for PocketPCs. That’s where it all began. Of course, two weeks after I got it, the company bought one too.

Every evening I would just go through the menus and tinker with the settings, and I soon found out about XDA Developers, a place to do stuff. Towards the beginning of 2007 I met a foreign official who, after talking on the phone, took the stylus and made a note. I busted through the bodyguards and I just had to ask him about what became my first smartphone: the HTC P3600, aka the Trinity.

There was no stopping now. From 2007 to 2008 I quickly became a power-user, then a (rather popular, according to the standards of those days) ROM chef, and an XDA Developers Moderator (currently Retired Senior Moderator). Until one day I received a Private Message from someone (was kind of easy to spot between all the others asking for help, support, congratulating, bitching, etc.) asking me a very interesting question: “We have this website called Pocketnow.com and I’ve noticed you around here. How would you like to write some articles and earn some money while doing it?“.

The Microsoft MVP days

The early Pocketnow days (below), my XDA Developers, and community activity got me on Microsoft’s radar. I was happy to wear the Microsoft Windows Mobile MVP title for 2010 and receive, once again, the Microsoft Windows Phone MVP award for 2011.

It was an awesome experience and I got to know some exceptional people, both from Microsoft, the community, as well as fellow MVPs, people with a lot of dedication who do this because of all the love they have inside. MVPs are not Microsoft employees; they’re all independent experts with lots of dedication.

Later it was either branch out, and cover additional, awesome, platforms too, like Android and iOS, or stay focused on Windows Mobile/Phone and continue the activity for a third MVP-year. I decided I couldn’t ignore everything else (publicly) and branched out, expanding my focus. As such, 2011 was my last year as a Microsoft MVP as my Windows Mobile/Phone dedication (exclusive initially) and contributions became less frequent.

The Pocketnow days

August 19, 2008 was the date I published my first ever article on Pocketnow. I was Contributing Editor writing initially one, then later two pieces per day, about cool stuff from XDA Developers. Five years and more than 5,500 posts later I can’t really seem to remember when exactly was it that I became Senior Editor. On October 1, 2010, I came on-board full time, as I resigned from the Regional Foreign Sales Manager position I held (and after five years of doing it, I became the one cashing in the biggest amounts. Ever!).

I remember than Brandon and I have talked, at length, about covering tablets. We were actually considering a sister-site dedicated to all things tablets where I would assemble a team of Editors under my Editor-in-Chief-ship, to address that segment of our potential future audience (Michael aka Mr. Mobile can tell you how everything felt on the other side). We then, of course, agreed that branching Pocketnow out to covering tablets was the best solution, and, when the site and our ME (Evan Blass) have parted ways at the beginning of 2012, I was offered the Managing Editor position.

I was excited to accept, not only because it is the second highest-ranking position in any journalistic structure, but, because over the years, I became good at managing people and situations, as well negotiating myself, or everyone else into, or out of anything. I also love a good challenge!

Update: As of January 1, 2014, I am the Editor-in-Chief of Pocketnow, after Brandon Miniman stepped down to pursue other projects. I am fulfilling both positions within the organization: Editor-in-Chief, as well as Managing Editor.

Anton D. Nagy as Editor-in-Chief

As publication leader, I aim to bring Pocketnow even closer to you. My vision is mainly focused on, and oriented towards, the audience. My ambition, adopted by the entire team, is to transform Pocketnow into a reference media outlet.

I’m confident that I’ll achieve that — together with what I consider to be the best team in tech that I’m working with — by doing more of the extraordinary, and unique things we know how to do so well, and less of what I think will need to either change, develop, adapt, or go away.

I lead and co-ordinate the entire staff, manage the Editorial and Video teams, define and implement the strategic development vision for Pocketnow, ensure and envision solutions, logistics, and methodologies necessary to achieve growth, among many, many other things.

Anton D. Nagy as Managing Editor

Many people are asking me all the time: what does the Managing Editor do? It’s just a fancy title! What does Anton D. Nagy do on Pocketnow aside from covering news, shows, the occasional reviews, podcasts and the Live show?

To be honest, these are only the visible things of my work, and they represent around a quarter of what I do. So what is it that I do, then? I get things done! I plan, I organize, I manage. They call me “The Schemer” for a reason! ?

Without going into too many details, I am responsible for the front page, at any point. I’m co-ordinating the Editorial team and planning content. What goes up, when, who posts it, why, who reviews, what, how, and so on. We have a very good system in place which works exceptionally. It is my job to keep the wheels turning.

I am also responsible for assisting the Editorial team with everything they might need, let it be imagery or mock-ups, in addition to creating the design for our YouTube and Twitter pages. Later our Facebook, and even the site you’re currently reading this on.

Additionally, I keep track of analytics, traffic data, content analysis from the past, reports, all in order to improve, based on the data I gather.

I also organize our European show (MWC and IFA) and special event coverages, meaning everything from cost estimation to the expense account (including train or plane tickets, accommodation, fuel, highway tolls, local transportation, food, logistics, registrations, event planning, coverage planning, and so much more).

I’m hiring and training people, making sure that they’re familiar with our system, back-end to front-page.

There’s also everything else that needs to be done, planned or ad-hoc, in addition to some other things I can’t talk about (mostly logistics).

Epilogue

It’s difficult to concentrate almost 33 years of life in a 1,500-word piece. Nonetheless, I tried to select they key points and events above so that you can not only get to know me a little bit better, but also have a grasp of who I am, where I come from, what I do, and what I stand for.

I’ve always tried to make the best out of every situation in life; I sure know I’ve always lived the day. …and I also know that I’ve never walked away when things got tough. I love my life and I’m happy to be part of an exceptional team, like the one we have here at Pocketnow. I love challenges, and I love solving apparently unsolvable problems.

I always say, though: “don’t ever regret the things you do or say. If you have to regret something, regret the things you never did and said”.

…and, at the end, I’ll leave you one of my favorite songs. It’s about me, you, and everyone else on this Planet. Let the lyrics talk!

You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. We can talk more there, and, of course, in the comments below.

___