ACS Publications – C&EN

This year marked a change in leadership at the Society’s weekly newsmagazine, Chemical & Engineering News.  Editor-in-Chief Rudy Baum retired from that post on Sept. 14. He is succeeded by Dr. A. Maureen Rouhi and Joshua Fischman succeeded Rouhi as C&EN’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief in November 2012.

The free C&EN Mobile app was recognized for its innovative capabilities that provide access to daily news updates from C&EN Online, analysis and commentary from the CENtral Science blog network, and the latest chemistry job postings. For this app, ACS was awarded the American Association of Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) award for Best eProduct in Physical Sciences & Mathematics.

With the introduction of additional features, the application (“app”) was made available in the Apple Newsstand interface. Published issues automatically update to the user's device regardless of whether or not they are running the application. The C&EN covers in Newsstand update to the latest cover issue and a new sash appears notifying users the issue is new to read. Improvements to the look and feel and the addition of a YouTube channel were also made. Version 2.2.0 of Android C&EN Mobile was prepared for release to the Android market. This release improves upon features in previous versions and is associated with the latest changes in the Android operating system.

C&EN also continues to expand its presence online through engagement in social media. Social media, which now account for 9 percent of C&EN Online’s referral traffic, enable C&EN content to be shared and discussed by prominent outlets like the New York Times, Scientific American, and the Atlantic.

CENtral Science, the magazine’s blog network, introduced two new blogs this year: Fine Line, which covers the fine chemicals industry, and Grand CENtral, a home for weekly summaries and announcements of the network. Almost all of the blogs saw an increase in page views from 2011.

In the social media arena, C&EN’s twitter feed (@cenmag) has more than 7,100 followers who read, share, and interact with C&EN via this channel.  Traffic to C&EN’s Facebook page and YouTube channel continued to grow, and a new Tumblr site was launched to foster sharing of photos, videos, C&EN articles, and social media posts from ACS National Meetings.