Pharmalot's Ed Silverman: The Exit Interview

On Monday, Pharmalot's Ed Silverman shocked the pharmaceutical business by returning from vacation and announcing that his blog was no more. Over the past two years, Pharmalot grew into the premier supplier of aggregated drug news and a formidable producer of original content (even BNET took the Pharmalot feed). In short, everyone in the business read Ed. The reaction to his departure was uniform: the universe was sad to see him go. Here's a brief selection of reax:

The Wall Street Journal: "genuinely bummed." Peter Rost: "Good luck Ed." InternetDrugNews.com: the "Uber Pharma Blogger" who ran "not just another site for information." John Mack: "Good Bye and Good Luck ... I was sorry to hear that Ed Silverman 'took the money and ran'"

So BNET called him up and put him through a human resources-style exit interview.

BNET: Where are you going and what will you be doing? Ed Silverman: I'm going to Elsevier Business Intelligence to contribute to their various titles including the Pink Sheet and In Vivo. And hopefully work on their web stuff.

BNET: Will you be taking over the In Vivo blog? ES: Honestly, that hasn't come up. I think it's more along the lines of contributing to the blog and discussing what other sites or blogs they might want to do ... Initially it will be a more traditional journalism job. But I'm hopeful that there'll be some new media ideas that I can pursue.

BNET: Why did you take the Star-Ledger's buyout? ES: The Ledger offered a very generous buyout package which, for personal reasons, I found very attractive.

BNET: What did you like best about doing Pharmalot? ES: A combination of independence to do what I thought had to be done. And the interaction I had with the audience.

BNET: Which was your favorite blog post? ES: I confess I very much enjoyed the post about the Pfizer exec who took helicopter rides to and from work. It was a "gotcha" moment. It was an old-fashioned journalism gotcha moment. I plead guilty to enjoying that once in a while. And also because it seemed to strike a nerve. Thousands of people found that post and read it for days on end.

BNET: What was the worst part about Pharmalot? ES: The gruelling hours. The non-stop nature of the work. Weekends weren't weekends, vacations weren't vacations.

BNET: But you chose to do it that way. ES: It was the only way to set it up. It was a Catch 22. I created my own treadmill, 24/7 work-life.

BNET: How did it change your job as a journalist? ES: I was doing a lot of aggregation so I became more of an editor than a reporter. I went from being a reporter 100 percent of the time to being a reporter maybe 20 percent of the time.

BNET: Did you notice any changes in the industry because of the rise of pharma blogs like yours? ES: I sense there was more sensitivity to more public comments ... a sensitivity to public opinion. I think web sites and blogs accelerated that process and made it possible for companies to respond to efforts from people like Chuck Grassley who pushed for more disclosure of various business practices.

BNET: Do you think the companies are comfortable with that? ES: I don't know. It's hard to give uniform answers for so many people. It's evolutionary. Some people are more comfortable and others still aren't there.

BNET: Which company has responded best to the web? ES: Depends how you define "best." They all try different things. I still give GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson some credit for putting out blogs. Different blogs for different reasons. They tried.

BNET: Which company has responded worst to the web? ES: I don't know every new media effort that each company is making. I don't claim encyclopedic knowledge. J&J had a gaffe with the moms thing [that would be the Motrin Moms ad, which insulted mothers who used baby slings]. I can remember certain things but not all of them. I think most of them are still sluggish. Put it that way.

BNET: You're going to miss blogging.

ES: It's going to be a bit of a withdrawal, I think.