Ed Silverman Considers Reviving Pharmalot

(MoneyWatch)  Former Star-Ledger pharmaceuticals reporter Ed Silverman is considering reviving his blog, Pharmalot. He is now the legal owner of "Pharmalot.com" and is keeping the brand alive in the form of a Twitter stream until he can figure out what to do with it.

The blog, which went dark in January, was probably the best-read drug news outlet on the web. Its closing prompted an unusually emotional outcry from an industry known for its taciturn demeanor. Silverman's goodbye message attracted more than 200 comments.

Silverman now works as a writer and editor at Elsevier, where he contributes to the In Vivo blog and the Pink Sheet. He says he's asked his employers if they want to take advantage of Pharmalot, "but there's a lot to sort out."

The Ledger gave Pharmalot to Silverman almost as a gift, he said. "My educated guess is that because the company never really was able to monetize the site, when I left they had no plans for it." Silverman left the Ledger in a round of buyouts designed to halve the newspaper's editorial staff. The demise of Pharmalot even spawned a blog by its orphaned readers, Pharmalittle.

"I'd like to revive the site," Silverman told BNET. "Pharmalot has a lot of brand name recognition, traffic was high."

Elsevier has been receptive to the idea of taking on Pharmalot, but nothing concrete has emerged. "It's something that maybe could happen. I haven't pursued any other possibilities yet," Silverman says. "We're still talking about it."

• Pharmalot's Ed Silverman: The Exit Interview