Program Highlights

C&EN made important changes to both its editorial and advertising sales operations in 2014. In December, C&EN welcomed Dr. Bibiana Campos-Seijo as the magazine’s new Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Campos-Seijo previously served as Editor and Publisher of Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. She brings a wealth of editorial experience, and a reputation for innovation in digital publishing.

C&EN held its first inaugural “virtual symposium” — produced in partnership with BioConference Live. The one-day symposium on  “Advances in Drug Discovery & Development” featured 20 leading scientist speakers, attracted more than 7,300 individual registrations, and garnered financial support from eight key advertising sponsors.

As the year progressed, C&EN editors and marketing staff won several prestigious national awards. Business writer Lisa Jarvis was one of only two finalists in the National Academies Communication Awards, while Assistant Managing Editor Cheryl Hogue won a first-place award from the Society of Environmental Journalists.

In the 2014 Folio Magazine Awards, the C&EN Media Group won all four categories in which it entered, including best video (“Scientific Cocktail Toppers”), best media kit, best marketing web site (“Marketing Elements”), and best online community for the Chemistry in Pictures Tumblr blog.

The C&EN design team experimented with presenting content in interactive graphics online. These included sortable tables, animations, and timelines. In addition, they introduced new cover and article layouts and designs. Examples of this are the Global Top 50 database, the 2014 Chemistry Year in Review and August’s Year of Crystallography issue. The latter two issues also included a specially-designed Micro-site.

In response to the strategic editorial audit carried out earlier in 2014, C&EN sought to deliver more of the science content readers demanded. The magazine now strives to produce shorter stories and more playful (where appropriate) story treatments and editorial angles. Editorial staff also incorporated social media planning into C&EN processes as well as content with other forms of reader engagement such as interactive quizzes, etc. Some of these new editorial features include:

• Speaking of Chemistry – a video series successfully launched by the Office of Public Affairs and C&EN staff.
• Patent Picks – a monthly collaboration with CAS that reports on trends CAS scientists observe from the patents in their databases.
• From the Scenes – a collection of stories based on ACS Publishing journals content.
• Chemistry In Pictures – a Tumblr created to highlight great photos of chemistry in action.

The C&EN Webinar program held a total of 64 webinars in 2014. During this time period the program has taken on new clients, tackled new webinar formats, and moved email marketing to our marketing automation software, Eloqua, all while continuing to generate leads for sponsors. Additional 2014 webinar highlights include:

• Working with new clients: Horizon, Starlims, Metrohm, Bio-Rad, EMD Millepore, Perkin Elmer
• Responsive, mobile friendly redesign of the registration page template and redesign of the email invitations and reminders
• Introduction of new webinar formats: slide share, translations
• Delivering new media to clients: Promo clips, webinar series