Editor’s Desk: Taking Stock

For those of you involved in the process of creating sales and marketing materials for your publications, I hope you enjoy the process. I do. At C&EN, we recently finalized our 2018 editorial calendar and media kit and they are now available online. It is an opportunity for the different teams to get together and take stock. We look back at what worked, what didn’t, and make decisions around the kinds of topics and themes that will be worth the editorial team’s time in the coming year.

The “looking back”’ part is especially rewarding. It’s important to track how our content has performed over time and what stories generated the greatest levels of engagement. While we use other metrics to track engagement, web usage has been especially encouraging for C&EN: so far visits to the C&EN website have seen an average increase of around 30% with respect to the same period last year.

In recent months, we’ve published a number of stories that have been very well received by the community around important topics such as mental health among graduate students, cancer and how the first approval of a tissue-agnostic treatment has the potential to change how oncology drugs are tested and used, imaging mass spectrometry and how drug developers are using this method to study drug distribution earlier in the discovery and development process, or fuel-cell cars and how researchers are still looking for ways to reduce fuel-cell costs and improve durability.

2016’s Start-Ups List

These are just some highlights of 2017, but they provide a good showcase of the breadth and depth of C&EN’s reporting. There’s also #chemNobel week, when the entire world cares about chemistry. Our coverage included a predictions webinar, our take on this year’s award, and live coverage on our social channels as the awards were announced. Nobel season is then quickly followed by C&EN’s Ten Start-ups to Watch, which is featured in the Nov 6 issue.

2017’s Start-Ups List

Now in its third year, this feature profiles ten young companies that are using ground-breaking chemistry to solve real-world problems such as neglected diseases, energy conservation, and electronics miniaturization. I hope you’ll look forward to reading what companies made it into the 2017 edition. If the 2016 list is anything to go by I think we are in for a treat.

Before the end of the year we’ll have our highly anticipated Year in Review coverage. Although it is now more than a decade old, it is fresher than ever as we continue to refine and improve it with features such as the Tweets of the Year, Molecules of the Year, interactive polls, and more. Catch up on 2016’s year in chemistry here.

What’s ahead in 2018? I’m definitely looking forward to the next installments of two other annual lists: Global Top 50 Chemical Companies in July and C&EN’s Talented 12 in August. (Here’s a playlist of presentations given by the Talented 12 at this past ACS Fall National Meeting.) Both features have been and continue to be very successful activities for C&EN. The Global Top 50 list of chemical companies is something that we have been providing for the community for more than 25 years, and consistently makes it to the top of our most read stories of the year. The Talented 12 is very close to our hearts here at C&EN, because it allows us to recognize talented young individuals working at the cutting edge of chemistry before they become globally recognized. We hope that one of them, one day, will win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Fingers crossed!

Somewhat new to us next year will be our Pittcon Playbook. Created by the C&EN BrandLab team, this handheld supplement will expand upon C&EN’s traditional coverage of Pittcon. Expect to see Q&As with industry leaders, an exhibitor directory, floor map, and other resources that inform attendees of the innovative technology and cutting-edge science showcased at Pittcon.

So we have a busy time ahead of us (when isn’t?) but we’ll be enjoying every minute of it. We hope you download the editorial calendar and media kit and make good use of them!

To that end, for tips on the type of PR pitches that gain our writers’ attention, read this Q&A with C&EN’s science desk editor, Lauren Wolf.

Bibiana Campos Seijo
@BibianaCampos