San Francisco Business Times editor Patrick Chu sent out the following announcement on Friday:
The San Francisco Business Times has launched its first podcast today as part of a broader effort by our parent company, American City Business Journals, to attract, increase and engage our audience.
BioFlash will initially be a bi-weekly podcast and will focus on the issues and personalities driving the Bay Area life sciences industry. It’s hosted by our longtime biotech industry and sports business reporter, Ron Leuty.
The San Francisco Business Times is the dominant source of biotech news for the Bay Area region. Since the Bay Area is one of the hubs of the global biotech industry, there also are a significant number of national and international readers who track our coverage. A biotech podcast is a way to deepen our relationship with consumers of biotech news, expand and protect our brand, and tap a new source of revenue at a low cost. It also helps us obtain interviews and cultivate relationship with key sources.
Our advertising team is already pursuing sponsorship opportunities for the podcast. If successful, BioFlash will serve as a model for other podcasts at the SF Business Times as well as ACBJ’s 40 other markets around the nation.
Leuty, along with our Special Projects Editor Marlize van Romburgh, Visual Journalist Todd Johnson and Creative Director Matt Petty, teamed up on the concept and production of BioFlash. (To subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, click: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bioflash/id1119633298?mt=2).
The first episode features an in-depth interview with Paul Hastings, CEO of OncoMed Pharmacueticals and an influential figure in public policy around life sciences. In the episode, Hastings discusses drug-pricing issues and next week’s big BIO life sciences conference in San Francisco.
A couple of ACBJ’s other markets have also launched podcasts recently. They include Louisville Business First, which hosts a weekly business news roundup podcast called The Kicker.
Congratulations and thanks to Ron, Marlize, Todd and Matt for their innovation and initiative.
