If you read our post earlier this week (Top 5 Tips for Pitching BioWorld), you know what kind of news BioWorld Today covers. Here are five more helpful hints regarding how to work with us:

1. How to contact us. Our direct phone numbers are on page two of BioWorld Today or here. Aside from the DC and science beats mentioned in Tip #4, we don’t specialize, so you can reach out to any of us. If you know your news is not cover-worthy (i.e. a patent, a personnel appointment, fast track or orphan drug designation, an early stage trial initiation, etc.), send it to newsdesk@bioworld.com. We check the newsdesk email all day, every day. It’s a good idea to cc newsdesk on any pitches in case the reporter you are targeting is out of the office.
2. When we bite, reel us in. We don’t have a lot of time between when we assign stories at 10 a.m. EST and when they are due at 4:30 p.m. EST. If we contact you (PR firm) looking for an interview, please let us know right away that you got the message and are working on it. Otherwise we might think you’re out of the office and just contact your client directly, and if we can’t reach them, we might kill the story. Along these lines, if you’re going to issue a press release, make sure you have a spokesperson available. If the CEO will be on a plane all day, line up someone else who can talk to media.
3. A note on going off the record. PR firms generally advise clients that there is no such thing as off the record. I did it when I was in PR, but as a reporter, I can tell you that’s definitely not true. At BioWorld, we depend on industry relationships, and we aren’t going to jeopardize those by printing something said off the record. Off-the-record conversations help us gather background information, and they help you build the relationship and keep us educated about your company. But remember that it’s vital to clarify the status of the discussion up front, not a day later.
4. More on embargoes. I mentioned embargoes in Tip #3, but I want to mention them again because they are so critical to how BioWorld operates. We always honor embargoes. If you can tell us about your news a few days ahead of time, we can get a jump-start on our background research. Also, since our publication comes out late in the evening, some companies will work with us ahead of time and then let us publish the story the night before their press release crosses the wire, so folks wake up and see the press release and the BioWorld cover story on the same day. Offering us that kind of arrangement always gives your newsworthiness a boost.
5. About clarifications and corrections. We want to be accurate, so don’t hesitate to ask for a correction if something is factually incorrect. But please don’t ask for a correction because we called your trial results “mixed” instead of “stunningly positive” when you missed three out of four endpoints. (Yes, this has happened).