NEWS ^ \
ANNIVERSARY
C&EN's life has been varied in its first 50 years T h e year 1923 can h a r d l y be s a i d to have been one of the t r u l y memorable years i n the forward progress of m a n k i n d . There were some important events: " S i l e n t Cal" Coolidge became the 30th P r e s i dent of the U n i t e d States on W a r r e n H a r d i n g ' s death; A u s t r i a ' s Pregl took the N o b e l P r i z e i n C h e m i s t r y ; D u P o n t started m a k i n g Cellophane under a Swiss license; a n d Y a n k e e S t a d i u m opened. B u t , otherwise, there are few memories about the year that require any s u b l i m i n a l obligations for those who lived at the t i m e — n o W a l l Street crash, no D a y of Infamy, no M c C a r t h y era, no revolution in the streets. Yet, the year 1923 has significance for chemists a n d c h e m i c a l engineers, especially those in the U.S. It was a year i n w h i c h an idea took action, in w h i c h a seed was sown for a p l a n t that w o u l d achieve not only uniqueness but w o u l d in its way achieve a measure of great ness. It was the year i n w h i c h Chemical & Engineering News w o u l d have its beginnings. O n N o v . 22, 1922, by a vote of the A C S B o a r d of Directors, the editor of the Journal of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry was authorized to issue a 12page supplement as part of that journal, but separately paginated, on the 10th a n d 20th of each m o n t h . T h e first issue was to appear on J a n . 10, 1923; it w o u l d be n a m e d the " N e w s E d i t i o n , I&EC." " M o r e o v e r , " says a history of A C S , " p u b l i c a t i o n of c h e m i c a l news m a t e r i a l
once a m o n t h [in I&EC] meant that fre quently when it reached the reader it had lost its timeliness. It was felt, there fore, that if the Society was adequately to serve the membership and keep abreast of the times, a separate p u b l i cation devoted to the dissemination of chemical news was r e q u i r e d . " T h e first issue, when we look back at it from today's perspective, seems rather on the stodgy side, i n keeping w i t h the journalistic style of these days 50 years ago. In a formal a n d slightly stilted tone, the editorial of that first issue said, " W e offer for your approval the N e w s E d i t i o n of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Its purpose is the promotion of research, the development of the chemical industry, a n d the welfare of the chemist. W e shall strive to further these objects by rendering a service for w h i c h we believe there is a d e m a n d not now met i n any p u b l i c a t i o n . " T h a t tone, of course, mirrored to a certain extent the character a n d life style of the editor—Harrison E . H o w e . A s editor of I&EC, he was thus editor of the t w i c e - m o n t h l y supplement. A m a n of meticulous manner a n d appearance (he continued to wear winged shirt col lars on formal occasions a l l his life and sported a V a n d y k e beard), D r . Howe had been appointed editor of I&EC i n 1921. A l t h o u g h the N e w s E d i t i o n d i d not change m u c h i n some 20 years of p u b l i cation, it d i d pass some milestones. O n J a n . 1, 1934, professional requirements for A C S membership became effective. A t the same t i m e , subscriptions to a l l A C S journals except the N e w s E d i t i o n were separated from membership dues. O n O c t . 10, 1940, the N e w s E d i t i o n published the first list of departments
of chemistry w h i c h , i n the judgment of the C o m m i t t e e for A c c r e d i t i n g E d u c a tion Institutions, offered instruction " w h i c h permits their candidates for the A . B . a n d B . S . degrees to fulfill the m i n i m u m requirements adopted by the A m e r i c a n C h e m i c a l Society for the professional t r a i n i n g of chemists." T h e magazine continues that service to this day. Perhaps the mystery of fate, or the odd concurrences of events, or the mo ment's unforeseen opportunities might explain the year 1942 i n the develop ment of what became Chemical & Engineering News. It was the year of a name change—from the rather b l a n d News E d i t i o n to the more specific Chemical & Engineering News. If the first two decades or so of the News E d i t i o n were ones of no major changes of method, style, or managers, the following two decades were to pro vide change and progress at an almost d i z z y i n g pace. It started w i t h the ap pointment of D r . W a l t e r J . M u r p h y i n February 1943 to replace the deceased H a r r i s o n H o w e . D r . M u r p h y became editor of I&EC i n c l u d i n g its A n a l y t i c a l E d i t i o n (I&EC h a d started an A n a l y t i cal E d i t i o n i n J a n u a r y 1929 as a supple ment counterpart of the N e w s E d i t i o n ; it became a separate p u b l i c a t i o n i n 1948). A t the same t i m e , he became Director of the A C S N e w s Service. Perhaps it was a news sense that guided D r . M u r p h y to set up a more ef fective a n d efficient news gathering sys t e m . U n t i l he came on the scene, the News E d i t i o n h a d a s m a l l staff cen tered i n W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . So the idea of developing a string of C & E N field offices was set i n m o t i o n . A C & E N office was i n operation i n J a n . 15, 1973 C & E N
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Harrison E. Howe
New Y o r k C i t y — t h e first C & E N "news bureau." O n J a n . 10, 1945, a second office was opened i n Chicago. These two news offices signaled C & E N ' s move away from -the formalized scientific style of w r i t i n g of journals such as I&EC to a more newsy style of a weekly magazine. There followed a S a n F r a n cisco office i n J u n e 1946, a n d a H o u s t o n office i n J u l y 1946. W i t h four news bureaus, C & E N was well on the way to establishing i m m e d i a c y a n d breadth of coverage of what was going on i n the chemical world. In fact, there was enough strength a n d completeness at this t i m e to warrant converting C & E N from biweekly to weekly—it happened on J a n . 6, 1947. M u r p h y ' s way w i t h people a n d his innate journalistic i n t u i t i o n got h i m going. T w o of his men, Robert G o u l d and D r . R i c h a r d K e n y o n , he hired be cause not only h a d they the credentials of the chemist or c h e m i c a l engineer, but they were showing plenty of interest i n reporting i n their career areas. T h e y were doing u n p a i d editorial work on their A C S local section publications, 22
C & E N J a n . 15, 1973
G o u l d on the Memphion (of the M e m phis Section) a n d K e n y o n on the DelChem Bulletin (of the Delaware Sec tion). G o u l d was soon to become managing editor of C & E N ; K e n y o n was to report out of Chicago. In J a n u a r y 1949, the weekly switched to photo covers (earlier covers h a d car ried portraits i n artist's sketch). T h e Concentrates (printed as C o n C E N t r a t e s i n the rather cute form that incorpo rated the magazine's initials) pages orig inated i n M a y 1949. A n d a major reor ganization of the interior of the maga zine was made i n 1950. A C S News went toward the m i d d l e of the book as the C h e m i c a l W o r l d T h i s Week took u p the front—giving to the magazine, finally, its full news emphasis, an emphasis that has continued to the present. There was one other "event" of the year 1950 that was to be of great signifi cance to C & E N — p a r t i c u l a r l y i n terms of expanding a n d perpetuating the v i sion and great expectations of D r . Walter M u r p h y . H e sent R i c h a r d K e n yon to E u r o p e to open a field office there. Here was the vision expanded to an international degree. A l t h o u g h for the t i m e being there w o u l d be only one office abroad, based i n L o n d o n , E n gland, its i m p a c t i n terms of a weekly " c h e m i c a l " p u b l i c a t i o n of a scientific and educational society can only have been extraordinary. A t that time, no comparable magazine h a d as m a n y domestic field offices as C & E N . E v e n t u a l l y , so successful and so i m portant became international c h e m i c a l news reporting that C & E N opened an office i n Frankfurt, West G e r m a n y , and, later, one i n T o k y o , J a p a n . In 1951, A C S celebrated its D i a m o n d Jubilee. T h e C & E N issue of June 25,
Walter J. Murphy
1951, contained the final program of the D i a m o n d Jubilee meeting of the Society — a l l 69 pages of it. T h e issue itself, one of the biggest C & E N ' s ever, was 176 pages. Also i n 1951, C & E N started look ing at A C S national meetings as a specific news event. Thereafter, C & E N provided extensive reportage of national meetings. A s the 1950's progressed, C&EJN was to undergo considerable staff changes (in q u a l i t y and size) and a complete remodeling. T h e most important move for that t i m e was the hiring of a m a n who w o u l d not only have a refreshing detachment i n looking at A C S and its publications but had long and deep experience i n the field of magazine editing a n d p u b l i s h i n g : C . B . Larrabee. In November 1955 when A C S hired him as Director of P u b l i c a t i o n s of the A C S A p p l i e d Journals, M r . Larrabee was c h a i r m a n of the board of Printers' Ink, a magazine of advertising, selling, and marketing. T o the newly created A C S position were attached the respon sibilities to coordinate circulation and circulation promotion, and the adver tising and editorial programs of the applied journals. D r . M u r p h y , at the time of the L a r r a bee appointment, was named E d i t o r i a l Director for the A p p l i e d Journals. These two men were to work together, some times i n harmony, other times at logger heads, to p u l l together a powerfully strong p u b l i s h i n g entity w i t h i n the Society. T h e push and p u l l of their work would go on u n t i l D r . M u r p h y ' s death i n November 1959. So Larrabee set about p u t t i n g more order into the p u b l i s h i n g group. H e reorganized the staff. In June 1956, he appointed K e n y o n editor of C & E N
Covers. C&EN (left to right) as the News Edition, and as Chemi cal and Engineering News in the 1940's, early 1960's, and late 1960's
(Dr. K e n y o n had been back from E u r o p e and was managing editor of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry at the t i m e ) . Robert G o u l d , who earlier had been hired by M u r p h y , was manag ing editor of C & E N . One other appointment at this t i m e was to have particular significance—the m a n i n question was to become editor of C & E N and take it to an unprecedented level of editorial a n d c o m m e r c i a l suc cess. A research chemist n a m e d G o r d o n B i x l e r was recruited to the staff of I&EC i n 1951 as an assistant editor. Gordon B i x l e r transferred to C & E N i n 1952. H e went to Chicago a n d then to San Francisco a n d became head of that office i n 1955. L a t e i n 1956, he returned to the Washington central staff to be come news editor of C & E N . W i t h i n a year he was made assistant managing editor. A new reign was h a v i n g its beginnings. T h e experience of C . B . Larrabee t o l d h i m that to make a success of a maga zine, especially a weekly newsmagazine, some knowledge of the readership was of paramount importance. So C & E N be gan surveying its readers (through the then E a s t m a n readership surveys). T h e surveys w o u l d not only put C & E N ' s readership i n better perspec tive for the editors but they were to prove of inestimable value i n p r o v i d i n g reader analysis for advertising sales. It was during the 1950's that C & E N won the A l l C h e m i c a l A l l A m e r i c a n M e r i t A w a r d (1952); that it p u b l i s h e d its first prices quarterly supplement (1954); underwent an entire remodeling including the cover (1955); dropped continuous pagination (1957); and published the first C & E N careers sup plement (1957). T h e new character of the magazine was emphasized again when i n the Sept. 23, 1957, issue the m a i n editorial body of C & E N opened w i t h a news lead instead of w i t h a feature or special report. T h e first logo on the news page came O c t . 7, 1957. T h e 1960's began w i t h a bang—in the form of a complete revision i n m a k e u p and typography of C & E N . It involved new department logos, a new C h e m i c a l W o r l d T h i s Week, research and tech nology concentrates, new type styles for heads a n d blurbs. Letters to the E d i t o r
was moved up front, the cover was re vamped, a n d m a n y other changes made —and a l l done beginning w i t h the issue of F e b . 15, 1960. G o r d o n B i x l e r by this time was managing editor. (Robert G o u l d had been promoted to the posi tion of Assistant to the E d i t o r i a l Direc tor, who was R i c h a r d K e n y o n . A l t h o u g h Dr. K e n y o n retained his position as editor of C & E N , he h a d been promoted to E d i t o r i a l Director A C S A p p l i e d P u b lications after D r . M u r p h y ' s death.) As the magazine moved through the first half of the 1960's, there were to be many continuing changes. Indeed they came i n such r a p i d succession that they can be considered only cursorily: a page of W a s h i n g t o n Concentrates (January 1961); an office i n P h i l a d e l p h i a (June 1961); an experimental a i r m a i l i n g of C & E N to E u r o p e a n readers (October 1961); opening of a second office i n Europe, i n Frankfurt, West G e r m a n y (November 1961), and two new domestic offices i n C l e v e l a n d a n d L o s Angeles (December 1961). In 1962, the magazine started contin uous a i r m a i l i n g of copies to E u r o p e (January); C & E N originated the c r i t i c a l review of a l l original research stories of a c o l u m n or more i n that department ( A p r i l ) ; opened a P i t t s b u r g h office (June); and appointed G o r d o n B i x l e r editor (August) w i t h K e n Reese as m a n aging editor. In N o v e m b e r 1962, D r . K e n y o n was appointed Director of P u b l i c a t i o n for a l l of the then A C S A p p l i e d Journals. It was i n 1964 under the guidance of Joseph K u n e y that C & E N introduced a highly advanced m e c h a n i c a l system— the Teletypesetter ( T T S ) . T h e equip ment allowed C & E N to "set" the copy type i n the W a s h i n g t o n Office, t r a n s m i t the information by telephone wire to M a c k P r i n t i n g , where the information was fed directly into a linotype machine. T T S helped the editors to make the magazine more efficient a n d effective i n its news gathering a n d p u b l i s h i n g activ ities. T w o other major events began to take shape i n 1964, b o t h of w h i c h were part of a program to b r i n g to the magazine highquality features, i n areas of wide reader ship interest. T h e renewed features program was, itself, the re-emphasis of
a long-standing policy of p u b l i s h i n g in-depth and detailed articles written by experts i n the field, and designed to bring to the interested reader the back ground, state of the art, and future d i rections occurring i n the sciences, indus try, teaching, government, social changes, a n d philosophy. T h e June 1964 p u b l i c a t i o n of the special report on oceanography, how ever, was different, at least i n C & E N ' s experience. T h e actual p l a n was formu lated i n early 1963 when Gordon B i x l e r and M e l Josephs (later to become managing editor of C & E N ) began to establish the scope of the article. In what was then a r a d i c a l departure from normal procedure, M r . B i x l e r hired N e w Y o r k graphic artist F r a n k M u l l i n s to sail w i t h Josephs on an oceanographic re search vessel where the artist was to make on-the-spot illustrations, and, eventually to prepare a series of paint ings depicting oceanographic research vessel activities. There would be two more lengthy features i n C & E N that w o u l d carry commissioned original art illustrations: one on the atmosphere w i t h illustration again by F r a n k M u l l i n s ; a n d one on the earth w i t h original illustrations by the noted A m e r i c a n watercolorist D o n g K i n g m a n . T h e three features were even tually c o m b i n e d and sold as a reprint. C & E N ' s last move d u r i n g the 1960's i n its expansion of news gathering ca pabilities was the opening of an office i n the O r i e n t — i n T o k y o , J a p a n , J a n . 1, 1965. T h e office was opened and staffed by P a t r i c k M c C u r d y , who was to be come E d i t o r . H e was p a r t i c u l a r l y suited for the T o k y o assignment because he h a d graduated i n Japanese from the U . S . A r m y Language School, Monterey, Calif., a n d had served a tour of duty i n J a p a n . T h e opening of the T o k y o office h a d a l l of the i m p a c t a n d m u c h of the potential that were inherent i n the opening of the first C & E N E u r o p e a n office 15 years earlier. T h e year 1966 was to be a peak year for C & E N — a t least i n terms of revenue. T h a t year the magazine brought i n to A C S almost $4 m i l l i o n — a n astonishing figure for a magazine of such apparently specialized scope, published by a scien tific and educational society, and dealJ a n . 15, 1973 C & E N
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ing b a s i c a l l y i n one subject—chemistry. It was a peak year from w h i c h a slide w o u l d begin that would drag C & E N toward severe financial restraints. T h e c h e m i c a l a n d allied industry, w h i c h h a d p a i d most of that $4 m i l l i o n for advertis ing space, was changing its direction. So the big advertisers began a s w i t c h to those m e d i a t h a t w o u l d get their message across more directly to the consumer—to T V , to the mass-circula t i o n women's magazines, and, of course, to the newspapers. It was at this t i m e t h a t P a t r i c k P . M c C u r d y entered the magazine's m a n a gerial d i r e c t i o n . A c h e m i c a l engineer out of Carnegie T e c h , he j o i n e d C & E N ' s staff i n 1960 a n d was sent to the N e w Y o r k office. F r o m there he was trans ferred to the Frankfurt office, where he later became head of the E u r o p e a n News B u r e a u . A n d he was well suited to his next job—to open a n d r u n C & E N ' s T o k y o office. In September 1967, M r . M c C u r d y was brought back from T o k y o a n d pro moted to m a n a g i n g editor of C & E N . W i t h i n 19 months, he was appointed editor after G o r d o n B i x l e r resigned. P a t r i c k P . M c C u r d y was to bring to C & E N a degree of enthusiasm for things journalistic: he saw his mission as one of news j o u r n a l i s m first. He set about changing m a n y of the forms of the magazine, bringing to it some of the characteristics of the nation al weekly newsmagazines. W o r k i n g w i t h layout artists a n d production staff, he reorganized the presentation of the magazine giving more emphasis t h a n ever to news, a n d i n s i s t i n g on a news like alertness i n the w r i t i n g of the department stories. H e was to m a k e p r i m a r y changes i n the magazine that were done i n the interests of more ef ficient operation a n d were very contem porary. A n entire face lift was made starting w i t h the F e b . 1, 1971, issue. As the financial erosion over w h i c h he h a d no control began a n d acceler ated, M r . M c C u r d y b a t t l e d to m a i n t a i n and improve the magazine's content, its interestingness a n d liveliness, its i m mediacy a n d awareness a n d breadth. As M r . M c C u r d y explained it late i n 1971: " B u d g e t a r y changes requested by the A C S B o a r d for 1972 have been made and C & E N ' s 1972 budget is now ac ceptably near balance w i t h direct ex penses pared to $400,000, i n c l u d i n g costs represented by 400 e d i t o r i a l pages. Some 65% of the necessary cuts i n editorial ex penses have come from various items of production costs. S u c h reductions, u n fortunately, fell short by some $135,000 of the required total amount. O n l y two choices r e m a i n e d : cut staff or risk ir reparable h a r m to the core of the maga zine. T h e u n h a p p y but unavoidable de cision was to reduce editorial staff. A s a result, eight members (six editors, two secretaries) have been l a i d off w i t h three months' n o t i c e . " 24
C & E N J a n . 15, 1973
Richard L. Kenyon (left) and Robert Gould
Richard L. Kenyon (left) and C. B. Larrabee
Gordon H. Bixler
The article i n w h i c h M r . M c C u r d y e x a m i n e d the fortunes of C & E N j o l t e d a good many members a n d some of their elected representatives i n the A C S C o u n c i l out of their complacency about the magazine. There had always been some members who looked upon the $3.00 from their dues that went to sup port C & E N as too m u c h for the maga zine. B u t M r . M c C u r d y made it p l a i n that t h a t $3.00 rate h a d been u n changed for 22 years n o t w i t h s t a n d i n g skyrocketing costs for p r i n t i n g and dis t r i b u t i o n , for paper, a n d for salaries. In the face of appeals to increase the amount of membership dues support of C & E N , the C o u n c i l P u b l i c a t i o n s C o m mittee h a d resisted approval of such an increase. B u t the layoff of eight staff people plus the declining revenues a n d the enforced reduction i n abilities to carry out the magazine's mission (it was after a l l the " o f f i c i a l " weekly p u b l i c a t i o n of the Society) brought into sharper relief the need for greater Society support of the magazine. Committees of the A C S B o a r d of D i
rectors and the C o u n c i l began to look more closely into the affairs of C & E N — to reconsider the very i mporta nt role that it p l a y e d and continues to play i n the concerns of the Society a n d the world of the chemist; to examine i n greater detail how seriously it was threatened by loss of advertising revenue and by the lowly financial sup port c o m i n g from membership dues. T h a t scrutiny brought into sharper focus the need for action—clear and immediate. T h e clarity a n d i m m e d i a c y were no better demonstrated t h a n at the 163rd A C S N a t i o n a l M e e t i n g i n Boston i n A p r i l 1972. A s C & E N itself reported the matter: " . . . Councilors showed a v i r t u a l ocean of hands i n a powerfully affirmative vote to increase the c o n t r i b u t i o n to C & E N from mem bership dues. T h e y voted for an a d d i i tional $2.00 that w i l l m a k e it $5.00 per member starting J a n u a r y 1973. A s many members present at the meeting indi cated, it was a vote for the fact that C & E N is acknowledged as the only direct news l i n k between members and the Society; it was a r a l l y i n g vote i n the
face of a sudden awareness that one of the Society's cornerstones was threat ened w i t h financial s t r a n g u l a t i o n . " B y the t i m e of the 164th A C S N a t i o n al M e e t i n g i n N e w Y o r k C i t y i n late August 1972, C & E N ' s s i t u a t i o n was a l ready showing a resurgence—to a point from w h i c h D r . E r n e s t E l i e l , c h a i r m a n of the C o u n c i l C o m m i t t e e on P u b l i c a tions, was able to say that the prognosis is for a s u b s t a n t i a l i m p r o v e m e n t i n the economic stance of C & E N for 1973. T h e prognosis seems to be correct. A c c o r d i n g to D r . K e n y o n , C & E N ' s 1972 finances were appreciably better t h a n budgeted; an u p t u r n i n advertising income is now a fact; a n d subscription income i n 1973 w i l l be u p by 50% over 1972. T h e B o a r d P u b l i c a t i o n s C o m m i t tee has agreed that any 1973 net income over the breakeven budgeted should be used for r e b u i l d i n g the magazine. C & E N stands today as an entity s t i l l responsible for fulfillment of its role as (what M r . M c C u r d y calls) " a weekly newsmagazine of t o t a l c h e m i c a l per spective." If anyone believed that this magazine after 50 years of so m u c h growth, so m u c h change, so m u c h re orientation of priorities would face a future of stagnation or mere coasting along, the new spirit of resurgence a n d confidence disputes that belief. A s D r . K e n y o n , now Director, P u b l i c Affairs and C o m m u n i c a t i o n D i v i s i o n , A C S , has expressed it: " W i t h strong m o r a l sup port from the body of m e m b e r s h i p as voiced by the A C S C o u n c i l , backed up w i t h increased financial support by its member subscribers a n d i m p r o v i n g advertising support as the economy rises, Chemical & Engineering News w i l l enter its second half-century w i t h confidence a n d w i t h the policy of con t i n u i n g to upgrade its journalistic ser vice." McCurdy comments-
There are differences of views about what C&EN should do . . . . I see C&EN as an observation post for the chemist/chemical engineer, interpreting in a noneditorial way . . . . C&EN's staff stands in a neutral position with regard to telling the ACS membership what's happening . . . . If we do the job well, we end up promoting the interests of the chemist . . . . I don't see a need to pro mote special interests, nor special glasses to view the chemist . . . . Our main news beat—the world of the chemist, industry; finance, the chemist as professional and so on . . . . C&EN reports the changes . . . . It must give perspective to the moving scene out there . . . . Chemistry's dif fusing all over, becoming a service sci ence . . . . Maybe we've generated too many "pure" chemists . . . we'll have to have people who can do the basic jobs in chemistry as a service science . . . . Where's the evolution leading? . . . For C&EN the key words are breadth,
perspective, depth . . . the journals of ACS are like pillars with C&EN the capstone . . . . Chemists are conserva tive, have tended to bury themselves, to be remote in their science . . . . When I was made editor in 1969 I did not visualize revolutionary, only evolutionary changes in the magazine . . . . I tried to broaden the scope . . . . Early editorials and reader reaction to them showed me what broadening was needed . . . we wanted to have fewer purely vertical scientific or technical articles because they'd be too narrow in scope . . . . The size of the magazine had some impact on its content . . . . We needed to reduce compartmentalization of C&EN, get greater crossover among subjects, make stories more broadly relevant.... We tried to provoke thought and dis cussion . . . there were so many "off limits" topics . . . . My "Kent State" editorial was an attempt to make such topics relevant . . . . The editorials did get response from the membership and thus showed us how interested and in volved they really were with the Society's affairs . . . . But C&EN could cultivate no special interests . . . . The guest editorial pro gram, although not favored in its early stages, turned out to be healthy since it brought differing views to the maga zine . . . . I didn't always agree with the views expressed—the Mazzocchi editorial on unionizing chemists was one I disagreed with . . . . One of C&EN's basic needs was to publish varying opinion and ideas . . . . What we've been looking to publish each week is a mix of opinion, editorial, spot news, trends and analysis, the movements in professionalism, whatever is current. . . . Even now I still see C&EN changing in an evolutionary way . . . . I'm looking for growth in quality . . . to try to get story subjects involving chemistry that also reflect the world at large . . . . For the future C&EN needs to give more consideration to the world as a geographical unit . . . . We have to be concerned with chemical science in the world as a whole . . . . C&EN ultimately will need more outposts . . . I certainly see C&EN recovering but not to the level of the sixties peak . . . we should get back to close to 2000 edi torial pages in the next three years or so . . . . So when we restore pages, we can do more of the stories we want to do . . . . We'll restore some staff . . . we need them in the field especially in New York and Europe . . . . We need to get all of our editors traveling again. . . . Td like to restore our features pro gram . . . . We'll be better able to fulfill our role . . . we can't be spokesmen for the chem ical industry . . . that implies lobbying . . . . Nor can we really be spokesmen for the chemist, except on our official pages . . . we're not a propaganda sheet
Patrick P. McCurdy
. . . . What's happening now is that chemists are facing a fundamental ques tion: Are they going to be turned inward or outward on the world? . . . This is part of the meaning behind the struggle that is going on in ACS . . . . I feel the chemist must turn outward . . . . He must be part of the catalytic effect of getting chemists to attack real problems . . . . C&EN can play a part by making the chemist aware . . . we follow the chemical thread wherever it leads . . . . I think there'll be a permanent interest in professionalism . . . some will remain, maybe a bit weakened, after economic improvement . . . . Currently the pres sure is on C&EN to be an influence in the area of professionalism . . . but I don't want to see C&EN a captive of this or any other group . . . . I don't think we should allow ourselves to be overly influenced by any one faction or interest . . . . We can't give anyone an estab lished pipeline through C&EN.... The magazine is really unique . . . . I guess the only thing I can think of that might be equivalent is the British Broadcasting Corporation . . . . That's a nationalized communications channel paid for by the British taxpayer yet it's quite autonomous and free . . . . The future is going to bring us many mechanical changes in printing and publishing . . . . C&EN will keep pace with these changes . . . . New technology such as photocomposition (which we are now using) or audio, video "publishing" . . . things like simultaneous and fac simile transmission of magazines right onto your TV set at home . . . . There's also the "tailor-made" magazine . . . You just file your interests with some central publishing point . . . . But these might not be pertinent to news reporting any more . . . . Indeed, they might defeat the purpose of C&EN.... I guess I'm basically optimistic about the future, about C&EN's future. We'll recover.... J a n . 15, 1973 C & E N
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