Past masters...
4 Oct 2011 by Evoluted New Media
Many editorial staff have made Laboratory News what it is over the last 40 years - here some past Editors share with us their thoughts on their time at the helm of the magazine.
Alex Crawford
Editor 1987–1998
In 1987, I was Editor of a successful EMAP monthly, Health and Safety at Work, when the Publisher invited me to become Editor of Laboratory News so as to develop it from fortnightly into weekly in order to compete with New Scientist.
We had a great team of four journalists, display advertising and classified advertising sales staff, who spent a couple of years trying to realise that vision. However, the publishing model was flawed, because the controlled circulation readership of Laboratory News had the profile of senior laboratory scientists interested in details of new equipment and new developments in laboratory sciences, rather than looking for jobs – so they were of no interest to the recruitment advertisers who generated most of the revenue for New Scientist.
Also, in 1987, Laboratory News was really Number 4 in the UK market in terms of revenue – behind Laboratory Equipment Digest, Laboratory Practice and Medical Laboratory World. However, when Robert Maxwell’s publishing empire was split up, EMAP acquired Laboratory Practice, and, although I also edited it, focusing on quality issues, EMAP closed it after a year.
In a later exchange of publications with Morgan Grampian, EMAP also acquired Laboratory Equipment Digest and promptly closed that competitor too. That left only Medical Laboratory World competing with Laboratory News, so we launched a regular Biomedical News supplement.
That’s a brief history of how Laboratory News came to the fore in in the UK laboratory market during my time as Editor – Happy Days!
Mark Burgess
Editor of Laboratory News 1998 – 2003
I came to Laboratory News in 1996, as assistant editor to Alex Crawford, a wry Scot. He was rather political and made the magazine quite a campaigning publication.
Alex was easy to work with and had a keen eye for detail. The sales team, headed by the bon viveur Trevor Day, supplied the energy (and, of course, the money). The publisher at that time was Mike Eade, who once managed to travel to France and back on his wife’s passport (he had a beard; Wendy didn’t).
Alex went off to some EU job and I became editor. My first act was to put ‘The Scientists’ Newspaper’ on the masthead. Some might say it was the first and last time I had a useful idea. I did try and make it live up to the ‘newspaper’ tag with big front page stories, and we used to ruin all sorts of odd competitions.
I appointed Gary Burd as an assistant editor, mainly because he was the only interviewee who made me laugh. In 2001 I saw a job advert for the editorship of The Biochemist. I was putting the finishing touches to my application when Gary asked me if I’d be referee for a job he was going for. It was the Biochemist job, so I abandoned my application and wrote a glowing and pretty much truthful reference. As fate would have it, he left the job two years later and I was a bit more nippy with the application this time. I got it and spent three months being Gary’s deputy while he showed me the ropes.
Although it’s been eight years, I still look back with affection at my time with Lab News. These were the days of freebies all over the world, of spectacular liquid lunches and, as we used to say of EMAP, “every meeting a party.”
I still enjoy looking at Lab News, with a vaguely paternal eye, and wish it all the very best for the future.
Editor of Laboratory News and MedLabNews, 2003 – 2009
Despite the fact it has been nearly two years since I left the helm of Laboratory News, it really only feels like yesterday. It was an incredibly privileged time in my career, to be allowed behind the closed doors of so many worldwide companies. It was my job, and my privilege, to understand how these businesses came about, to appreciate their key drivers and strategies, learn where they heading and how they were planning to get there.
It was always exciting and interesting to be among the first to hear about new products - products that in the majority of instances had taken these enterprises years to develop - and to be tasked with informing our audience about them. I know that Laboratory News has always done an excellent job of reaching its audience and communicating its message effectively. May it continue to deliver timely industry news, informative articles and product updates for another 40 years.
