Monthly Archives: February 2012

AMDeC Launches Upgrades, Expands the F.I.R.S.T. Registry

Posted on February 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

As part of AMDeC’s ongoing efforts to offer programs and services that will increase efficiencies and promote collaboration between biomedical researchers and the academic community, last week the consortium announced that it has implemented upgrades to AMDeC F.I.R.S.T. (Facilities Instrumentation Resources Services Technologies) as well as added information about several new vendor partners. These upgrades will allow searches to be conducted more easily and quickly, streamlining the process of finding resources such as core facilities and other research services. The addition of new vendor partners brings AMDeC’s members more opportunities to minimize research expenses.

Maria Mitchell, president of AMDeC

AMDeC is a consortium of New York-based academic medical research institutions, including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, with the goal of expediting discovery through collaborations between these institutions and the life science industry. Through resource-sharing and vendor partnership programs, which secure preferred pricing on products and services essential to the life science industry, AMDeC works to facilitate collaboration and the efficient use of resources needed for biomedical research. In addition to existing vendor partners, like Sigma-Aldrich and NuGEN Technologies, recently added vendor partners include QIAGEN and Xiacon.

Russo Partners continues to bring awareness of AMDeC’s services to the members of the consortium through educational events involving vendor partners at member institutions. These events are a key forum to inform members of the services they receive through their AMDeC membership, encouraging them to take advantage of the benefits they receive to support their research. Additionally, these events provide an opportunity for vendors to educate members about their services as well as answer questions about their products.

As AMDeC continues to expand its programs to support biomedical research, Russo Partners looks forward to bringing awareness to new services and products available to AMDeC’s members. You can learn more about AMDeC, its vendor partnership program and the F.I.R.S.T. registry in this interview with AMDeC’s president, Maria Mitchell, published recently in Xconomy: NYC Consortium Promotes Collaboration Among Scientific Researchers.

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Back to Basics: 3 Key Tips for Developing an Effective Pitch

Posted on February 6, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Before reaching out to the media to discuss a potential story, there are several key steps that will make your pitch truly effective.

1. Really Do Your Homework

Once you have decided on a target publication, it is important to conduct detailed background research. Beyond reading the publication and researching if your topic has been covered, it is important to dissect the publication critically, noting different sections, columns, types of coverage (Is it news of the day? A feature story?) as well as the angle of the stories in each (Should it have an opinion? Or inform?).

Although this may seem time consuming at first, conducting background research will greatly increase the quality of your pitches, which will increase the likelihood that they will be of interest to the publication. And when you send a well thought out pitch to a journalist, they will be more likely to look for your pitch in the future. Additionally, doing your homework helps demonstrate the value you can bring to the publication.

2.  Learn Individual Beats

While at first glance it may seem as though journalist’s within a publication have the same area of interest, for example science, there can be key nuances between coverage. Some may focus on the business side of science while others focus on scientific research. Getting your story to the right journalist will increase the likelihood it will be of interest and is a more effective use of your time and the journalist’s time.

3.  Think Like a Journalist

Once you have broken down the publication and understand more about the format and who is writing certain stories, it is time to begin to think like a journalist, if you haven’t already. Think about your pitch in terms of a story. Are there trends in the space around which the company can provide insight? Does the company have a novel way to solve a problem in the space? It is important to remember the readership of the publication as well. Would this trend be of interest to the readers? If not, could you tweak the story to make it more of interest to this audience?

Taking this next step and thinking about what the readership would like to hear about from your company makes life much easier for the journalist. Instead of having to work to fit an interesting company into their coverage, sending a prepared story, complete with relevant sources, is much more beneficial.

While these strategies take more time and effort, implementing these tips should both improve the effectiveness of your pitches as well as your relationship with the journalist.

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