Categories: OLD Media Moves

ACBJ experiments with sending texts of breaking news — for a price

An American City Business Journals paper is experimenting with sending news to its readers with text alerts.

Ron Leuty, who covers biotech companies for the San Francisco Business Times is now sending texts to subscribers that offer “unique insights and a first look into the biotech industry.”

The charge is $5 per month.

The service allows subscribers to reply directly to Leuty and to contribute ideas. Leuty has been at the paper since 2007 and covers hundreds of drug, medical device and diagnostics companies — as well as academic and independent research centers — in the heart of the life sciences industry.

Jon Wile, vice president of content at American City Business Journals, said the company is also testing the text news service in Washington and Chicago.

Chicago is focused on airlines and air travel with reporter Lewis Lazare. Washington is focused on restaurants with reporter Rebecca Cooper.

“We will see how the test goes before we decide to roll to other paper and reporters,” Wile said in an email.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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