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http://www.modernphysician.com
The editors of Modern Physician are serious about the business of medicine. They have to be with a circulation of around 32,500 doctors (and a few attorneys and consultants)
who are making daily business decisions. Joe Conn, editor of the monthly magazine, estimates that about 57 percent of the circulation is comprised of doctors in groups (solo
practitioners are not a target audience). The remaining 43 percent are doctors who work in hospitals in a leadership capacity - as a CEO, as a chief medical officer, a chief of
staff, a board member, a medical informaticist or other executive - or doctors who are in executive positions with HMOs and other medical insurers. The pub is not about the
clinical, scientific or pharmaceutical sides of medicine, as many PR practitioners incorrectly assume, but the lenient editorial staff will forgive communications pros'
shortcomings in the hope of that perfect pitch.
Content/Contacts
"This is a community of like-minded, like-trained, like-motivated individuals, trying to use their skills and training to bring the business of medicine to bear on patient
care," Conn says. The pub tells their stories, through case studies of what individuals have done right and wrong. It also supplies valuable information on emerging technology and
legal issues that will have an impact on the business of practicing medicine.
Consider Conn your gatekeeper to the rest of the editorial staff. Once you've developed a rapport with an individual reporter, however, Conn has no objection to PR pros
pitching the reporters directly.
Send email pitches to [email protected] a couple of months before an issue closes. The pub closes the last Wednesday of the month before the
cover date.
Pitch Tips
"I'm in the communications business, and people need to communicate with me," Conn says. He teaches college-level journalism and says when he gets information he can't use, he
thinks of his students. "I have students come boiling out of J-school into PR; they get a job, and they're eager to please," he says. "I'm very patient with people in PR." He does
expect those students to do their homework, however.
Because the publication focuses on business, Conn does not want to see clinical trial results (regardless of what stage they've reached). Instead of information on
pharmaceutical trials, for example, send him an email pitch with information on the formulary committees behind the pharmaceuticals, which include physicians and pharmacists.
Comments
Modern Physician recently underwent its first redesign since its inception in 1997. The new look allows editors to be much more flexible in the stories they write. "It will
allow for shorter, quicker stories, using more graphics," Conn says. "The flexibility will allow us to have the story dictate its length instead of the format dictating
stories."
Under the new design, the editorial team wants to beef up the personality factor in the magazine. Conn says they will capitalize on the fact that the physician community is
such a fraternal group. "They know each other, they attend conferences together, and they talk about what they can do from a business standpoint. We want to talk about what
motivates them personally and professionally."
In The Pipeline
Modern Physician's editorial calendar is available online at http://www.modernphysician.com/media/2002calendar.php3. But in general, Conn says, the pub will be increasing its
focus on a few key issues over the next couple of years. "We're starting to see the adoption of healthcare information technology at an accelerated rate, and the cost savings will
be tremendous. But the cost of implementation will be tremendous as well. We're all over that."
Editors also will be taking a closer look at regulation, in particular the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Finally, as computerization of medical records and other data allows doctors to crunch data more quickly, the marketing of medical groups based on that data about quality of
care will be an important issue for Modern Physician to cover.