Research universities start own wire service to promote discoveries

Concerned that journalistic coverage of science, medical and other discoveries is declining with the unhappy financial fortunes of traditional media, a group of 35 leading U.S. research universities have decided on an end run. According to a story in the Mercury News, they have formed their own nonprofit wire service, Futurity, to provide articles and information to the top news and social media sites on the internet. The consortium includes such major schools as Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Princeton, Yale and the University of Chicago. (The only Canadian university participating is McGill in Montreal.)

"We've been really concerned. Our preference would be to have the level of coverage of science and research that we enjoyed for decades," said Lisa Lapin, assistant vice president for university communications at Stanford. "But the major news organizations haven't had the resources to provide that independent, objective look at what we are doing. It's been declining."

Major cuts in newspaper advertising dollars have resulted in significant cuts in space and coverage. 20 years ago nearly 150 U.S. newspapers had a science section and today fewer than 20 do, concentrating on health and lifestyle coverage.

Every week, participating universities now send several news releases and articles written by university staff members to an editor at the University of Rochester. The editor then highlights stories on a Web site, futurity.org, to showcase the research.