An open letter to the membership of the American Chemical Society This letter is meant to inform the membership of the American Chemical Society (ACS) about the detrimental changes that have been made to the operations of Chemical and Engineering News
I want to make a clarification - The 10.5 full time employees lost are positions that were completely terminated from the C&EN staff. Those do NOT include all of the vacancies that still need to be filled.
To give people an idea of the other top notch journalists who have left C&E News over the last two years: Jessica Morrison (started her own company), Tchad Blair (started his own business), Lauren Wolfe (Nature), Sam Lemonick (freelance writing), Megha Satyanarayana (Scientific American), Lisa Jarvis (Bloomberg), Ryan Cross (Boston Globe), Amanda Yarnell (Harvard Chan School of Public Health), Kim Bryson (Politico), among others. The readership of C&E News has been spoiled with this talent.
I've been a member of ACS for more than 20 years. The way C&EN staff are being treated at the moment is ridiculous, insane, asinine, embarrassing to the organization, hurtful to important chemical communication professionals, and will do nothing to improve knowledge of chemistry among chemists. Not renewing my membership seems likely at this point.
I would be happy to sign as an ACS member of 4 years strong and semi-regular speaker/presenter at Annual meetings. David Vaillencourt, M.Sc., The GMP Collective
We would be thrilled if you would share this information with your networks. If you have held a volunteer position within ACS, specifically in regards to C&EN and would like to sign this letter, please contact Matt Hartings - hartings@american.edu
Add my name to this protest letter. I'm a former Councilor (Chicago Section), former Alt. Councilor (Chicago, Minnesota, and Maine Sections, CINF), former member of the Editorial Board JChemDoc/JCICS journals, Former Chair of CINF, former chair of the Chicago and Maine Sections.
I am a 50-year member, who values C&EN and reads it religiously, and in a timely manner. I only like to read the print version. The ACS News aspects generally garner my least interest. I wish to sign on for the protest.
I had to dig to find this letter after reading puzzling statements in C&EN about them having fired the previous editor. Even given these changes in direction, I don’t understand why they chose to terminate the person in that position. How did they explain that, and where did she subsequently take her talents?. I’m very concerned about what sounds like a gross injustice.
Former Senior C&EN Editor Linda Wang is known to every ACS member who ever attended a National Meeting or participated in ACS member programs such as National Chemistry Week or Project SEED. She irreplaceable.
I find it puzzling that C&EN cannot figure out additional ways to bring in revenue.
I used to be an ACS Member for years but decided to leave because I really only found C&EN valuable and even then, I really only wanted to read a very select few pieces of writing. Currently if you want to subscribe to just the magazine it's LIMITED TO 10 DIGITAL ARTICLES A MONTH. WTF?!
I don't see why C&EN isn't run like an actual magazine within the larger organization. It should be allowed to become financially self-sufficient, and the magazine's leadership should be empowered to get there via revenue generating ideas (Merch/events) + subscriptions + advertising.
I want to make a clarification - The 10.5 full time employees lost are positions that were completely terminated from the C&EN staff. Those do NOT include all of the vacancies that still need to be filled.
To give people an idea of the other top notch journalists who have left C&E News over the last two years: Jessica Morrison (started her own company), Tchad Blair (started his own business), Lauren Wolfe (Nature), Sam Lemonick (freelance writing), Megha Satyanarayana (Scientific American), Lisa Jarvis (Bloomberg), Ryan Cross (Boston Globe), Amanda Yarnell (Harvard Chan School of Public Health), Kim Bryson (Politico), among others. The readership of C&E News has been spoiled with this talent.
I am a councilor for the PHYS division and am happy to sign. Please add my name, Benjamin J. Schwartz, UCLA
I've been a member of ACS for more than 20 years. The way C&EN staff are being treated at the moment is ridiculous, insane, asinine, embarrassing to the organization, hurtful to important chemical communication professionals, and will do nothing to improve knowledge of chemistry among chemists. Not renewing my membership seems likely at this point.
Daniel C. Herrick, CIH
Sr EHS Coordinator
Mechanical Engineering Dept, MIT
I would be happy to sign as an ACS member of 4 years strong and semi-regular speaker/presenter at Annual meetings. David Vaillencourt, M.Sc., The GMP Collective
I would be delighted to sign as a current JCIM board member!
I want to sign, as a former Board member. Please add my full name to this post and I’ll re-share.
We would be thrilled if you would share this information with your networks. If you have held a volunteer position within ACS, specifically in regards to C&EN and would like to sign this letter, please contact Matt Hartings - hartings@american.edu
Add my name to this protest letter. I'm a former Councilor (Chicago Section), former Alt. Councilor (Chicago, Minnesota, and Maine Sections, CINF), former member of the Editorial Board JChemDoc/JCICS journals, Former Chair of CINF, former chair of the Chicago and Maine Sections.
-- Robert E. (Bob) Buntrock
60 Year Emeritus ACS member
I am a 50-year member, who values C&EN and reads it religiously, and in a timely manner. I only like to read the print version. The ACS News aspects generally garner my least interest. I wish to sign on for the protest.
I had to dig to find this letter after reading puzzling statements in C&EN about them having fired the previous editor. Even given these changes in direction, I don’t understand why they chose to terminate the person in that position. How did they explain that, and where did she subsequently take her talents?. I’m very concerned about what sounds like a gross injustice.
Former Senior C&EN Editor Linda Wang is known to every ACS member who ever attended a National Meeting or participated in ACS member programs such as National Chemistry Week or Project SEED. She irreplaceable.
I find it puzzling that C&EN cannot figure out additional ways to bring in revenue.
I used to be an ACS Member for years but decided to leave because I really only found C&EN valuable and even then, I really only wanted to read a very select few pieces of writing. Currently if you want to subscribe to just the magazine it's LIMITED TO 10 DIGITAL ARTICLES A MONTH. WTF?!
I don't see why C&EN isn't run like an actual magazine within the larger organization. It should be allowed to become financially self-sufficient, and the magazine's leadership should be empowered to get there via revenue generating ideas (Merch/events) + subscriptions + advertising.