Confessions of a news editor

By Richard L. Hudson
CEO & Editor, Science|Business

Why does some company news get published, and other news doesn’t? A leading editor – now founder of an innovative news service at www.sciencebusiness.net - lifts the veil.

The daily news business takes no prisoners. For six years, as managing editor of the Wall Street Journal’s European edition, I met twice a day at 11 and 6 with a dozen other editors to pass summary judgment on company and market news.

The criteria for what we printed and what we ignored were ruthless: Is the company well-known? Is the deal very big? Is it in a hot area, as financial markets were defining it at that moment? No on all three counts? Spike it.

It’s an excellent system developed over a century to serve public stock markets. But all those “spiked” stories bothered me, especially in the realm of science and technology, my personal specialty as a journalist for 30 years. What about the biotech licensing deal, on which no firm price tag can be placed upfront? How about the R&D contract between a tech major and a research professor? Or the seed financing of a hot little spin-off?

Surely, I thought, if we understood these small but important deals, we could spot technology trends earlier. Ignoring them is how you miss the really big opportunities in business – the rare little research groups or start-ups that grow to become an Amgen or a Microsoft.

That thought was the basis of an innovative news service that I left the Journal to start last year: www.sciencebusiness.net. We cover the science and technology deals, startups and partnerships that the big media ignore – and do it across scientific disciplines and across borders. We spot the tech trends earlier. We analyze them, from a business perspective, better. We highlight the business people and researchers – in big companies, start-ups, university labs, law firms and VC houses – who matter most in the European market. And we gather and report on unique business opportunities in science, for licensing, investment or partnership.

At the heart of this news service is an unusually experienced team of science and technology journalists: Two former managing editors of Nature, the ex-editor of New Scientist, tech journalists from Bloomberg, IDG News and the Economist. Working with us is a unique network of Europe’s greatest scientific institutions, including the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the Karolinska Institute and ETH-Zurich. The aim: to provide our subscribers news, insight and opportunities in the scientific marketplace.

For an example of what I mean, here are a few of our recent stories that you can read for free during our trial period:

• Is the IPO market for European biotechs picking up?
• The first tech spin-out from the Cambridge MIT Instituten
• A UK firm setting the pace in gene therapy
• The real winners from Europe’s new chemical rules
• 3i’s head of venturing: The view on university spin-outs

We’re delighted to have Northbank Communications participating in our network of leading European firms and institutions -and do write me and tell me what you think of our news service. The mission: To catch the first wave of technology.

Rich Hudson
CEO & Editor
richard.hudson@sciencebusiness.net

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