NewsRx is a media

Media (communication)

In communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data...

 company focusing on digital media

Digital media

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...

, print media

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

, mass media

Mass media

Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

, news media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

, and published media; and arguably the world’s largest producer of health news. The company publishes 292 unique newsweeklies in health and other fields, distributing them to subscribers and partners including Factiva

Factiva

Factiva is a business information and research tool owned by Dow Jones & Company. Factiva aggregates content from both licensed and free sources, and provides organizations with search, alerting, dissemination, and other information management capabilities...

, the Wall Street Journal Professional Edition, and LexisNexis

LexisNexis

LexisNexis Group is a company providing computer-assisted legal research services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information...

. The company was founded in 1984 with the publication of AIDS Weekly by CW Henderson. In the early 2000s, NewsRx added the imprint, VerticalNews weekly publications, to cover non-health fields. Now based in the Atlanta, Georgia suburb of Vinings, the company reports breaking news through its daily news service, and produces reference books through its partner, ScholarlyEditions.

Beginnings: 1980s to 1990s

NewsRx is based in the Atlanta, Georgia suburb, Vinings, and is operated by NewsRx LLC. The idea for the first newsletter originated at an international conference on AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) where a staff member commented to CW Henderson on the need for a publication to condense the explosion of information about the deadly disease. In 1984, Henderson created CW Henderson Publisher, which became NewsRx in 2004.

The company distributed its first journal, CDC AIDS Weekly, (which split into AIDS Weekly and Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA) to an international audience. The first subscriber was the Soviet Union which, when admitting that AIDS cases had surfaced, needed a source that solely reported on the pressing topic. Other subscribers include physicians, educators, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies.

The articles in AIDS Weekly discussed all aspects of the disease from social issues to medical research, aiming to leave nothing unreported. To cover emerging events and research, the newsweekly included “shorts.” “Shorts” explained as much as was known about currently unfolding information and events, promising that more would follow.

Before the World Wide Web, NewsRx coordinated with the National AIDS Information Clearinghouse to provide information on the disease. The CDC AIDS Weekly Infoline provided a list of upcoming AIDS seminars as well as names and addresses of over 65 AIDS periodicals published worldwide.

The information published in AIDS Weekly came primarily from the CDC whose national headquarters was located in the same neighborhood as NewsRx. Though the newsweekly had no direct ties to the CDC other than as a source for information, a CDC official described the publication as “highly informative.” Other sources of information for this and other titles were the nearby Emory University

Emory University

Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...

 medical library and international agencies. Articles included summaries of peer-reviewed research, conference reports, news releases, and compilations from other health and medical organizations.

The company upholds the principle that important medical health information belongs to the public. However, in the beginning, some critics feared that the AIDS virus was becoming a source of commercial income for companies, who would neglect to contribute to AIDS education and research, opting instead to make a profit. Some were offended by the fact that NewsRx was a non-governmental agency reporting statistics that were considered to be exclusive to the government. (see Controversy)

In 1988, NewsRx added Cancer Weekly to the first journal on AIDS, and Blood Weekly in 1993. Then, in 1995, NewsRx added Vaccine Weekly to its list of journals. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, over 100 more medical-related titles on a variety of health and medical topics were added to the publication base.

Recent Years: 2000's

In 2007, NewsRx introduced VerticalNews, a group of newsweeklies that included 86 new non-medical related titles, thus expanding the company’s reader-base. The initiative also emphasized the distribution of information on a global scale (more than 50 countries). Electronic versions of the publications are available. In addition to the 103 newsweeklies in medical, legal, and business fields within the healthcare industry, NewsRx publishes 88 newsweeklies within the VerticalNews imprint.

A technological improvement came with adding site licenses which allow users to download reports that show the types of information most popular with people in a given organization--information previously restricted to the NewsRx staff. The system recognizes IP addresses to facilitate research activities. Each site license varies based on the size of the company, the number of users, and the amount of content. Users include Ivy League schools such as the University of Pennsylvania, local and international hospitals, government agencies, and business corporations.

Another advancement in technology was Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

 Journalist (AIJ) which uses robotics, machine learning

Machine learning

Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...

, algorithms, logic, and automated reasoning

Automated reasoning

Automated reasoning is an area of computer science dedicated to understand different aspects of reasoning. The study in automated reasoning helps produce software which allows computers to reason completely, or nearly completely, automatically...

 to provide computer-assisted reporting

Computer-assisted reporting

Computer-assisted reporting describes the use of computers to gather and analyze the data necessary to write news stories.The spread of computers, software and the Internet changed how reporters work...

 and data driven journalism

Data driven journalism

Data-driven journalism is a journalistic process based on analyzing and filtering large data sets for the purpose of creating a new story. Data-driven journalism deals with open data that is freely available online and analyzed with open source tools...

. This software program shortens the time from news event to news distribution.

EncyK and ScholarlyEditions

In 2009, NewsRx introduced a line of medical encyclopedias called EncyK (Encyclopedic Knowledge) which provided information in subject areas including vaccines, breast cancer, autism, HIV/AIDS, and Swine Flu

Swine flu

Swine influenza, also called pig influenza, swine flu, hog flu and pig flu, is an infection by any one of several types of swine influenza virus. Swine influenza virus or S-OIV is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs...

. These titles were written for patients, physicians, and parents.

In 2011, NewsRx partnered with ScholarlyMedia’s ScholarlyEditions imprint, publishing 4,000 reference books, which replaced the EncyK line.

Editors

Throughout most of its operating history, the NewsRx staff included board-certified medical editors with bachelor’s degrees in journalism or related fields and experience in writing and editing. Today’s staff includes supervisors with PhD’s and Master’s degrees in English, journalism, and Information Technology. NewsRx editors condense news so that each article is less than 1000 words, while remaining information-heavy, and including full references and citations to original source material.

Controversy

As there are no qualifications for one to start a newsweekly, critics have attacked NewsRx, whose staff included journalists rather than medical professionals. At the company’s beginnings, Newsweek magazine commented that AIDS Weekly, as a non-government entity, should not be reporting on topics that included policy, research, and statistics that some considered exclusive to the government. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...

 (CDC) AIDS task force at the time was misquoted as stating that he disagreed with having the CDC name associated with the newsweekly. On the contrary, every issue of the CDC AIDS Weekly included an advisory caption, “…not sponsored by, endorsed by, affiliated with, or officially connected with the CDC.” Other staffers within the CDC supported NewsRx’s view to bring AIDS awareness to the public eye. The Boston Globe noted that AIDS Weekly was a necessary “watchdog” publication providing needed information to the public. Other articles appeared supporting NewsRx in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today, applauding the company for its impact in AIDS awareness and investigative journalism.

CW Henderson’s role as executive editor at NewsRx was discussed in an article in Editor and Publisher, focusing on the influence of pharmaceutical companies on news publications. Henderson opposed pharmaceutical company influence on reporters as well as premature reporting of experiments.

NewsRx was also involved with the The New York Times in controversial breaking news about AIDS studies that had purposely been tampered with at the CDC. On at least 5 occasions, research on the causes of AIDS and other viral diseases might have been tampered with. CDC AIDS Weekly published an internal CDC memorandum on the incident.

In 2010, NewsRx’s VerticalNews China was the subject of a denial of service attack that originated from China as a result of controversial news reported. The attack was halted when the company’s IP service identified the source and blocked it.

Philanthropy

The company supports the AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGIS), a worldwide database of AIDS information that presents content from AIDS Weekly and other AIDS related newsletters. This resulted in a partnership with the AEGIS Millenium Collection at the United Nations, part of UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

’s Memory of the World Program.

Partnerships

The company's partners include:

• ScholarlyMedia – Publisher of 4,000 scholarly ebooks in 2011; the president of NewsRx is also president of ScholarlyMedia. The company’s book imprint is ScholarlyEditions, and its peer reviewed news service is ScholarlyNews.

• Dow Jones Factiva and the Wall Street Journal Professional Edition- For 20 years, NewsRx articles have been available through Dow Jones sources.

• InfoDesk – InfoDesk allows NewsRx content to be available to desktops, websites, and other business applications including the site licenses.

• Thomson Reuters
  Thomson Reuters
  Thomson Reuters Corporation is a provider of information for the world's businesses and professionals and is created by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of Reuters Group on 17 April 2008. Thomson Reuters is headquartered at 3 Times Square, New York City, USA...
  
   – The partnership between Reuters and NewsRx began 20 years ago, and with Thomson 10 years ago. In 2008, the two companies merged.

• LexisNexis
  LexisNexis
  LexisNexis Group is a company providing computer-assisted legal research services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information...
  
   – NewsRx has been a Reed Elsevier
  Reed Elsevier
  Reed Elsevier is a publisher and information provider operating in the science, medical, legal, risk and business sectors. It is listed on several of the world's major stock exchanges. It is a FTSE 100 and FT500 Global company...
  
   LexisNexis partner for 10 years with products catering to legal, corporate, government, and academic communities.

• Cambridge Information Group
  Cambridge Information Group
  Cambridge Information Group is a privately owned group of information services and publishing companies and educational institutions. It was founded in 1971 by Robert N. Snyder and Philip E. Hixon and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. As of 2007, CIG’s operating companies are ProQuest, R.R....
  
   (CIG) – NewsRx content is available through ProQuest
  ProQuest
  ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based electronic publisher and microfilm publisher.It provides archives of sources such as newspapers, periodicals, dissertations, and aggregated databases of many types. Its content is estimated at 125 billion digital pages...
  
  , Dialog, and Datastar.

• NewsEdge – NewsEdge, a division of Acquire Media, and NewsRx have been partners since 1991.

• Cengage Learning
  Cengage Learning
  Cengage Learning is a publisher of print and digital information services for the academic, professional and library markets, and delivers customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, libraries, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the...
  
   - Cengage Learning’s Gale
  Gale (publisher)
  Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
  
   has partnered with NewsRx since 1993.

Rankings

The company's rankings include:

• Amazon's Alexa
  Alexa Internet
  Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
  
  2011 PageRank: #5 News and Media Site for the Pharmaceutical Industry
• Google 2010 PageRank: #2 Among Top Health News and Media Publications
• Google 2010 PageRank: #2 Among Top Science Publications in Biology/Physiology
• Google 2010 PageRank: #2 Among Top News and Media for the Business of Pharmaceuticals
• Amazon's Alexa 2010 PageRank: #2 News and Media Site for the Pharmaceutical Industry
• eHealthcare Leadership Award, Best Health/Healthcare Content 2011
• Best e-Business Site, 2010
• Best e-Business Site, 2009
• Best e-Business Site, 2008
• Best e-Business Site, 2007
• Best e-Business Site, 2006
• Best :*Healthcare Content, 2005
• Best Overall Internet Site, 2005
• Best Interactive Site, 2005

Titles

NewsRx has a database of over 20,000,000 proprietary news articles available through paid subscription. A limited selection on popular topics is also available through free subscription. The public can access NewsRx products through the Wall Street Journal Professional Edition, or as pay-per-article and timed-access passes at NewsRx.com. Titles include:

Health News Titles

Clinical

• Aging and Elder Health Week
• Aids Vaccine Week
• AIDS Weekly
• Angiogenesis Weekly
• Anti-Infectives Week
• Biotech Week
• Bioterrorism Week
• Blood Weekly
• Cancer Gene Therapy Week
• Cancer Vaccine Week
• Cancer Weekly
• Cardiovascular Week
• Clinical Oncology Week
• Clinical Trials Week
• Diabetes Week
• Disease Prevention Week
• Drug Week
• Gastroenterology Week
• Gene Therapy
• Genetics and Environmental Health Week
• Genomics and Genetics Weekly
• Health and Medicine Week
• Health Insurance Week
• Health Risk Factor Week
• Heart Disease Weekly
• Hematology Week
• Hepatitis Weekly
• Hospital and Nursing Home Week
• Immunotherapy Week
• Life Science Weekly
• Malaria Weekly
• Managed Care Weekly Digest
• Medical Device Law Weekly
• Medical Devices and Surgical Technology Week
• Medical Imaging Week
• Medical Letter on the CDC and FDA
• Medical Patent Week
• Mental Health Weekly Digest
• Obesity and Diabetes Week
• Obesity, Fitness, and Wellness Week
• OBGYN and Reproduction Week
• Pain and Central Nervous System Week
• Preventive Medicine Week
• Proteomics Weekly
• Respiratory Therapeutics Week
• Science Letter
• Stem Cell Week
• Tuberculosis and Outbreaks Weekly
• Telemedicine Week
• Tuberculosis Week
• Vaccine Weekly
• Virus Weekly
• Women's Health Weekly
• World Disease Weekly

Legal

• AIDS Weekly and Law
• Biotech Law Weekly
• Cancer Law Weekly
• Cardiovascular Device Liability Week
• Disease Risk Factor Week
• Drug Law Weekly
• Elder Law Weekly
• FDA Law Weekly
• Food and Drug Law Weekly
• Genetics and Environmental Law Weekly
• Health Insurance Law Weekly
• Healthcare Finance, Tax and Law Weekly
• Hospital Law Weekly
• Lab Law Weekly
• Law and Health Weekly
• Managed Care Law Weekly
• MD Week
• Medical Imaging Law Weekly
• Medical Patent Law Weekly
• Medical Verdicts and Law Weekly
• Medicine and Law Weekly
• Mental Health Law Weekly
• Patient Care Law Weekly
• Pharma Investments, Ventures and Law Weekly
• Pharma Law Weekly
• Physician Law Weekly
• State and Local Health Law Weekly
• State and Local Health Law Weekly
• Surgery Litigation and Law Weekly
• Telemedicine Law Weekly
• Women’s Health Law Weekly

Business

• Biotech Business Week
• Cardiovascular Business Week
• Fitness and Wellness Business Week
• Genetics and Environmental business Week
• Health Business Week
• Healthcare Mergers, Acquisitions and Ventures Week
• Hospital business Week
• Lab Business Week
• Managed Care Business Week
• Medical Device Business
• Medical Imaging Business Week
• Medical Patent Business Week
• Mental Health Business Week
• Nursing Home and Elder Business Week
• Oncology Business Week
• Pharma Business Week
• Physician Business Week
• Telemedicine Business Week

Merged and Renamed Titles

• AIDS Weekly Plus
• Alzheimer’s Disease Weekly
• Antiviral Weekly
• Bio-Terrorism.Info
• Breast Cancer Weekly
• Cancer Biotechnology Weekly
• Cancer Weekly Plus
• Disease Weekly Plus
• Disease Weekly Plus
• eHealth Week
• Health Letter on the CDC
• Herpes Virus Weekly
• Impotence and Male Health Weekly
• Infectious Disease Weekly
• Malaria and Tropical Disease Weekly
• ManagedHealthcare.Info
• Medical Letter on the CDC
• Monoclonal Antibodies Weekly
• Neurological Diseases and Disorders Weekly
• Obesity Weekly
• Pain Weekly
• Sex Weekly Plus
• TB Weekly
• Technology News Focus
• The Business of Global Warming
• Transplant and Tissue Weekly
• Transplant Weekly
• Tuberculosis and Airborne Disease Weekly
• Tuberculosis and Communicable Disease Weekly
• Vector and Zoonosis Week
• World Disease Weekly Plus

Vertical Industry News Titles


Business

• Marketing Weekly News
• Marketing Business Weekly
• Real Estate Weekly News
• Real Estate Business Journal
• Real Estate & Investment Week
• Real Estate & Investment Business
• Economics Week
• Economics & Business Week
• Insurance Weekly News
• Insurance Business Weekly
• Investment Weekly News
• Investment Business Weekly
• Business & Finance Week
• Mergers & Acquisitions Week
• Mergers & Acquisition Business
• Journal of Transportation
• Transportation Business Journal

Science

• Defense & Aerospace Week
• Defense & Aerospace Business
• Agriculture Week
• Agriculture Business Week
• Journal of Farming
• Chemical & Chemistry
• Chemical & Chemistry Journal
• Ecology, Environment & Conservation
• Energy Weekly News
• Energy Business Journal
• Energy & Ecology
• Energy & Ecology Business
• Resource Week
• Journal of Engineering
• Engineering Business Journal
• Food Weekly News
• Food Business Week
• Food Weekly Focus
• Food & Farm Week
• Journal of Mathematics
• Mathematics Week
• Mining & Minerals
• Mining & Minerals Business
• Nanotechnology Weekly
• Nanotechnology Business Journal
• Physics Week
• Journal of Physics Research
• News of Science
• Robotics & Machine Learning
• Journal of Robotics & Machine Learning
• Veterinary Week
• Veterinary Research Week
• NewsRx Science
• NewsRx Health & Science
• Global Warming Focus
• The Business of Global Warming
• NewsRx Health

Technology

• Computer Weekly News
• Computer Business Week
• Computer Technology Journal
• Computers, Networks & Communications
• Information Technology Newsweekly
• Information Technology Business
• Internet Weekly News
• Internet Business Newsweekly
• Internet, Networks & Communications
• Electronics Newsweekly
• Electronics Business Journal
• Network Weekly News
• Network Business Weekly
• Journal of Technology
• Technology Business Journal
• Technology News Focus
• Journal of Technology & Science
• Telecommunications Weekly
• Telecommunications Business

Geographic

• Journal of India
• India Business Newsweekly
• China Weekly News
• China Business Newsweekly
• Asia Business Newsweekly

Leisure, Travel, & Entertainment

• Entertainment Newsweekly
• Entertainment Business Newsweekly
• Entertainment & Travel
• Leisure & Travel Week
• Leisure & Travel Business

Government & Education

• Politics & Government Week
• Politics & Government Business
• Education Letter
• Education Business Weekly