The health care news site all over the pandemic

Marc Tracy of the New York Times writes about STAT, the Boston-based health care news site that was among the first to cover the coronavirus pandemic thoroughly.

Tracy writes, “Stat, a digital publication in Boston founded in 2015, was early to a story that would dominate the news. In January, a month before the first confirmed case of unknown origin in the United States, the site published articles on the coronavirus’s ability to be spread by asymptomatic carriers; how it could test President Trump’s penchant for undermining established science; and the determination by experts that containing it ‘may not be feasible.’

“‘We have realized this was big and have thrown a lot of resources at it, in Stat terms,’ Ms. Branswell said.

“The site has attracted nearly 30 million unique visitors this year, which is four to five times its usual traffic, said Rick Berke, the executive editor, who oversees the editorial and business departments.

“Part of the reason for the surge is that, like many other publications, Stat has placed its pandemic coverage outside its paywall. But with a staff of roughly 30 reporters and editors well versed in health and science, the site was well positioned to cover an epoch-defining story.”

Read more here.

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.