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Meet the Media: Mary Gannon, Editor-in-Chief of Fluid Power World & Senior Editor at Design World

I am Editor-in-Chief of Fluid Power World and Senior Editor on Design World. As EIC on FPW, I guide the content and direction of websites, webinars/events, and magazine. I assign articles to our in-house and freelance staff, work with our graphic artist for our print layout and designs, and work with our sales and management team to ensure our content meets our editorial mission and help with sales.

As the face of our brand, I am responsible for traveling to industry events and networking with our readers, advertisers and others. It’s an easy job because this industry is truly full of the best people and I enjoy my time with them.

Can you tell us what types of stories, trends or issues are on your radar now?

I would say the hottest topic in fluid power and engineering in general is electrification — electricifying mobile machinery, industrial machinery and everything in between. In this realm come autonomy and digitalization as well — anything that can help operators and machine owners increase efficiency and uptime while reducing efforts of operators.

Describe the craziest or most fun story you have written.

I would honestly have to say in this job as a technical editor, the imminent lockdown stories. In fluid power, our biggest event is in March every three years — IFPE — and as we were all preparing to fly out there, my state, Ohio, was shutting events down to the public … and companies started to bail. It was the first time I was doing on-my-toes, breaking news reporting in a while and it was a wild time as no one really knew what to expect. It became kind of controversial, but it was the biggest news story that month in our industry.

What story or stories are you most proud of?

I really love delving into people’s stories or stories of how companies are born. Although we are technical editors, every once in a while I get to learn what makes a person or company really shine and those have always been my favorite. This one, about two sisters who both became engineers, came to be because their brother, also an engineer, introduced me to them.

What elements or characteristics do you look for in a story?

For our readers, technical accuracy and relevancy is critical. We are here to educate fluid power engineers on how to design and maintain efficient, reliable hydraulic and pneumatic systems so getting them the stories that help with that is necessary. We also want them to be interesting and easy to read.

How long have you been in journalism and how did you get started?

I have been in journalism or PR for 25 years — I went to Boston University for journalism and upon graduation, I worked as a business reporter for a local daily newspaper on the outside of Cleveland. I loved it and I particularly loved the stories about manufacturing. After a few years hiatus doing community PR, I entered technical publishing when I was out of a job for a few months. I didn’t expect to last covering engineering but I fell in love — there is just something about learning how things works and are made.

Finish this sentence: If I am not reporting, I am …

At home with my three daughters, enjoying watching them grow and learn their passions.

What advice do you have for PR people that want to pitch you?

I think the most important thing is to keep pitches simple but most importantly relevant. Make sure you know what I cover and that your story will be exclusive — offer some basic details, a short outline or abstract and ensure you have good imagery. I try to be easy to work with :)

Any pet peeves with PR people?

The amount of completely irrelevant pitches I get in my email drives me insane. It can’t take more than a few minutes to investigate who you’re pitching and if I would even consider your pitch. Just take a few minutes to know my beat and I’ll thank you.

Tell us a little about yourself (family, interests, hobbies, background, some fact about you that few people know, etc.)

Probably the biggest thing about me is my Irish heritage and my passion for Gaelic sports. I did play Gaelic football when I was young (not very well but loved it as much as my father) and still love watching games, and enjoying all that comes with it. I met my husband through Gaelic sports and enjoy dragging my girls out to practice every once in a while. And with that comes so much other Irish culture — music, dance, laughter. We have a home in Ireland and I wish I could visit there every year, multiple times a year but do make the most of every visit we make!

You can follow Mary on LinkedIn and Twitter.  

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