Editor

It takes a certain kind of stubbornness and stick-to-it-ness to develop a successful online news site or a popular blog, especially if you are writing about the civic life of your community — not fashion tidbits or celebrity gossip. We are working with these news innovators to expand their health reporting.

Blogging regularly can be very satisfying and give you a chance to connect directly with readers.  But is it good for your career? The New England Science Writers hosted a panel of science bloggers at the Harvard Faculty Club in January and MIT Tech TV is hosting a video of the event. The speakers will be familiar to the ReportingonHealth community and all have very interesting things to say about their blogging lives. This week at Career GPS, we explore how blogging has affected the careers of these science writers.

William Heisel interviews Michele Simon, public health attorney and author of Appetite for Profit, who wants people to rethink what they are eating and why. She peers through the food industry marketing to see what big packaged food manufacturers and restaurant giants are really selling.

If you have ever been a freelance journalist, you know how hard it can be to break into a new outlet. That's why opportunities like those offered by HealthyCal.org are golden. The site focuses on health policy and how it connects to communities around California, an apt topic for editor Daniel Weintraub who spent nine years as a public affairs columnist at the Sacramento Bee. When Weintraub launched HealthyCal.org just over a year ago, he was the main content producer. Now, he's looking for new contributors from all over the state to connect Sacramento politics with ground realities.