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| Founded | 1984 |
|---|---|
| Founder | CW Henderson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Distribution | Global |
| Imprints | BUTTER, NewsRx, VerticalNews |
| Official website | www |
NewsRx is an American media company published in both digital and print media. As a news service, it provides coverage of current affairs and business news.
NewsRx is an American media company that produces digital and print publications. The company was founded by Charles W. Henderson in 1984, with its first publication, AIDS Weekly. It publishes specialized newsweeklies in health and other fields. Its content is accessible through databases such as LexisNexis, Factiva, The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition, Thomson Reuters, ProQuest, and Cengage Learning. In the early 2000s, the company introduced the imprint VerticalNews for newsweeklies outside the health sector. NewsRx also publishes reference books through ScholarlyEditions and operates the BUTTER platform, a tool for delivering its content to academic and professional users. [1]
NewsRx originated as an informational publication about AIDS, where a staff member at an international conference on AIDS sponsored by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) commented to media mogul C. W. Henderson on the need for a publication to condense the rapid rise in information about the disease. [2] In 1984, Henderson created CW Henderson Publisher, [2] which became NewsRx in 2004. [3]
That same year, the company distributed its first journal, CDC AIDS Weekly (which later split into AIDS Weekly and Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA), to an international audience. [4] [5] The first subscribers included the Soviet Union, [2] physicians, educators, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies. [2] [6]
The articles in AIDS Weekly discussed social issues related to the disease in medical research. [7] The newsweekly included “shorts” to explain as much as was known about unfolding information and events. [7]
Before the World Wide Web, NewsRx coordinated with the National AIDS Information Clearinghouse to provide information on the disease. [8] The CDC AIDS Weekly Info line provided a list of upcoming AIDS seminars as well as names and addresses of over 65 AIDS periodicals published worldwide. [8]
The information published in AIDS Weekly came primarily from the CDC. [7] Other sources of information for this and other titles were the nearby Emory University medical library and international agencies. [7] Articles included summaries of peer-reviewed research, conference reports, news releases, and compilations from other health and medical organizations. [9]
As a non-governmental agency distributing statistics that were available for free from the government, NewsRx received some criticism. [10]
In 1988, NewsRx added Cancer Weekly; [11] [12] in 1993, Blood Weekly; [11] and in 1995, Vaccine Weekly, followed by over 100 more medical-related titles. [13] [7]
By 1995, the company had become one of the largest producers of health-focused newsweeklies. [13]
In 1999, NewsRx introduced the Artificial Intelligence Journalist (AIJ) system, which employs automated reasoning and machine learning techniques to assist with reporting. This system was designed to accelerate content production. [5]
In 2007, the firm introduced VerticalNews. [11]
In 2010, the firm's VerticalNews China was the subject of a denial of service attack that originated from China as a result [ citation needed ] of a controversial news report. [14] The attack was halted when the company's IP service identified the source and blocked it. [10] [15]
From 2015, NewsRx has run business intelligence service Better Understanding Through Technology & Emerging Research (BUTTER), a knowledge discovery engine that aggregates research and uses a New Discovery Index (NDI) to track global developments. [17] It offers content to researchers, academics, and investors, using a New Discovery Index (NDI) that analyzes discoveries worldwide. [16]
As of March 2016, the BUTTER platform had published over 11.4 million articles. [17] It compiled data on market movements, regulatory filings, and intellectual-property updates in near-real time. [18]
BUTTER appears to be inactive as of 2025.
NewsRx has partnered with other companies, [7] including Factiva and The Wall Street JournalProfessional Edition; [19] InfoDesk; [7] Reuters [19] and subsequently Thomson Reuters; [20] Cambridge Information Group (ProQuest); [7] [21] NewsEdge; and Cengage Learning (Gale).
NewsRx also publishes article summaries with its partner ScholarlyMedia, forming the company's imprint ScholarlyEditions, and its peer-reviewed news service ScholarlyNews. [22] [23] As a result of the partnership, the president of NewsRx is also the president of ScholarlyMedia. [22]
NewsRx is staffed by journalists rather than medical professionals. [2] [24] At the company's beginnings, Newsweek magazine commented that AIDS Weekly, as a non-government entity, should not be reporting on topics that included policy, research, and statistics that Newsweek[ who? ] considered exclusive to the government. [7] [ verification needed ] The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) AIDS task force at the time was misquoted as stating that he disagreed with having the CDC name associated with the newsweekly. [10] Every issue of the CDC AIDS Weekly included an advisory caption, “… not sponsored by, endorsed by, affiliated with, or officially connected with the CDC.” [10] Other staffers within the CDC supported NewsRx's views on bringing AIDS awareness to the public eye. [10] The Wall Street Journal , The New York Times , and USA Today published articles in support of NewsRx's impact on AIDS awareness and investigative journalism. [7] [ page needed ]
C.W. Henderson's role as executive editor at the firm was discussed in an article in Editor & Publisher , focusing on the influence of pharmaceutical companies on news publications. [25] Henderson opposed the influence of pharmaceutical companies on reporters and the premature reporting on experiments. [25]
The firm was also involved in a controversy with The New York Times focused on AIDS studies that had purposely been tampered with at the CDC. [26] On at least five occasions, research on the causes of AIDS and other viral diseases might have been tampered with. [26] CDC AIDS Weekly published an internal CDC memorandum on the incident. [26]
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