Who the heck is Jeff Kagan? And why is he saying all those things in the news media about the telecom industry?

The answers: 1) He’s a telecom industry analyst; and 2) Because he can…or maybe it’s because he will…say all those things about the telecom industry, that is.

George Mannes, senior writer for thestreet.com, identifies Kagan as “the go-to-guy in telecom journalism… meaning that Kagan, “…has that rare and beautiful quality reporters treasure: He returns your call promptly, and he gives you a quotable comment you can drop in your story when you’re minutes away from deadline. He’s what we like to call the quote-a-matic of telecom reporting.”

What Kagan has figured out is that talking to the news media is good for his business. “The press mentions…publicize his money-making work as an analyst,” writes Mannes. “That analytical work is pretty much the same thing that he does with reporters: sharing his opinions.”

Imagine that! Talking to reporters is good for business. Go figure.

But it isn’t just his accessibility to the news media that gets him quoted. Kagan doesn’t draft “news releases,” He fashions quotes. According to Mannes, when news breaks in the industry Kagan emails ready-made quotes to reporters. No stories. Just quotes.

“Kagan has hundreds of reporters on his email list,” Mannes writes. “When he started sending out those little quotes, he says, reporters would call him back for clarification. ‘Now, half the time, they’ll quote right from it.’”

The information in those quotes, says Mannes, isn’t even all that insightful as telecom industry analysts go. “The comments aren’t bad,” he writes. “They’re not wrong. But they aren’t remarkable, either.”

So what makes them so useable? “These industry analyst quotes are the kind of sound bites editors expect hard-hitting, deadline-pressed reporters to include in whatever breaking news story they’re covering that day.”

According to Mannes’ article, Kagan went from 15 press mentions in 1995 to 638 in 2002. USA Today, he says, has quoted Kagan seven times in the past two months and 12 times last year. Based on that record and some other online research, Mannes concludes: “…if a commentator is identified as a telecom analyst in USA Today, there is a 59% likelihood he’s Jeff Kagan.”