Seed Media Group: Blog

Thursday, March 25, 2010 • Announcements • by Eva Wisten • #

Research Blog of the Year

The award for Research Blog of the Year went to “Not Exactly Rocket Science,” by Ed Yong, a British journalist who reports on general science news. Yong also collected the award for Blog Post of the Year, for a post describing research about the mating habits of ducks, which had become notorious among science bloggers for its dramatic videos of duck sex organs.

Seed created the awards to recognize a growing number of blogs that discuss serious scientific research. Their site, ResearchBlogging.org, has aggregated over 10,000 blog posts discussing peer-reviewed research, written by over 1,000 bloggers, often experts in their field. The bloggers themselves voted for awards in 20 different categories and five languages. 

Dave Munger, founder and editor of ResearchBlogging.org, interviews Ed Young on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

Munger: Tell me about your blog.  Yong: Not Exactly Rocket Science is about three and a half years old now. It’s my attempt to make science discoveries awe-inspiring and beautiful and interesting to as wide a variety of people as possible. I love science, I love reading about it, I love talking about it, and I really want to spread that enthusiasm to other people who might not have the background and the knowledge necessary to really engage with science through normal media channels or directly for themselves. So, I guess the blog is a bit of a news site, it’s a translation facility, it’s me just dancing up and down and saying “Hey, look, here’s some cool stuff I’ve found.”  It’s been getting more and more readers as time goes by. It took something like 35 months to get its first million hits, and it’s taken about seven months to get its second million hits, so I’m very pleased at the way it’s going, the way people seem to be interacting with it.

Over 400 blogs were nominated for the awards. See full list of winners and finalists in categories such as “Blog Post of the year and “Funniest Blog” here.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010 • Announcements • by Eva Wisten • #

Upcoming Seed talks

This spring, Adam Bly is giving two big talks on open science and Joy Moore is an invited expert on Social Media at the SSP’s 32nd Annual Meeting. Read more here.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 • Announcements • by Eva Wisten • #

“The most powerful media experiments are akin to fusion cuisine”

The Center for Social Media lists ScienceBlogs as one of eight public media projects that are doing “Public Media 2.0” right.

Last week, the organization released a report on how digital media projects are allowing engaged users to handle important issues and make them accessible to a broad audience. In the report, the authors identify the eight best practices in digital journalism.

“We found that some of the most powerful media experiments are akin to fusion cuisine “hybrids that unexpectedly combine platforms, funding sources, and perspectives to attract diverse and enthusiastic publics.”

We’re happy and proud to see ScienceBlogs among them:

4. Repurpose, remix, recycle: The ScienceBlogs website expands the reach of 100 independent science-related bloggers by connecting them with a community of more than 1.5 million monthly users. Bloggers added to the portal are recruited based on their area of expertise (i.e. physics, biology, philosophy, law, public health, etc.) and track record of success with their site. Participating bloggers include university scientists and doctoral students, attorneys, physicians, journalists, social scientists, and filmmakers. The most successful bloggers average between 200 to 1,000 user comments per post, and write as many as a dozen posts a day.  ScienceBlogs was launched as an extension of for-profit print magazine Seed, and has subsequently boosted the magazine’s brand, visibility, and subscriber base. Seed, however, provides little to no editorial oversight for the bloggers. ScienceBlogs generates revenue through paid advertising, which comes mostly from pharmaceutical, energy, chemical, and book publishing companies that are attempting to align themselves with science. (Some of these same companies underwrite productions of PBS’ “Nova,” Scientific American Frontiers, or PBS’ “NewsHour.”)

Friday, August 14, 2009 • Announcements • by Judy Grover • #

Dear Readers

These are certainly difficult times for magazines. Advertising is down dramatically and all the kids are apparently fleeing to the web. And for big magazine publishers, that means sadly folding many of their titles.

For us, it simply means that we have to innovate. The rules of magazine-making have all pretty much been thrown out the window and the rise of digital means there’s plenty to reimagine. These are challenging but exciting times.

We want to invite you into our brainstorm and share some of our thinking.

Things that won’t change:

- Print: We will continue to publish a print magazine

- Journalism: We will continue to invest in quality journalism and we will continue to publish the same kinds of essays, interviews, foresights, conversations, opinions, and profiles that we know you have come to love and expect from us.

- Design: We will continue to push the boundaries of print and interactive design. In fact, we recently commissioned a redesign…

- Mission: Seed was founded to capture and advance a cultural shift. We said “science is culture” and went about reimagining science’s place and role in the 21st century. We believe that the potential of science to improve the state of the world will only be achieved with universal science literacy. We will continue to tirelessly pursue this mission because we think it’s essential. Going forward, we also accept a new responsibility to help our readers navigate these complex times with new thinking and new tools.

Things that will change:

- Frequency: We are reducing our print frequency to reflect your new habits.

- Price: We will increase our cover price and introduce premium online content to offset rising costs.

- Online: We will do more online. (We recently started publishing daily on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM and traffic has grown 51% since last year.)

-Tagline: We’re not ready to unveil our new one just yet, but here’s a glimpse into our headspace.

As our parent company Seed Media Group has expanded into software, data visualization, conferences, and digital media, Seed will continue to pursue its mission with the same journalistic excellence and missionary zeal that you expect from us.

Thanks for reading and please send us your thoughts at readerfeedback@seedmediagroup.com

Seed