The Stanford School of Medicine entries, submitted by Susan Ipaktchian, clearly met the objectives of demonstrating the school's leadership in biomedical research and educating its identified internal, professional and external audiences. The releases were well written, addressed significant "real-world" issues and concisely communicated essential information. Additionally, it is important for news releases to have an impact, and the descriptions submitted with the releases provided impressive data on the interest generated by each story, including a grant from the Gates Foundation, a $50,000 donation from a patient and a story that generated 75,000 unique page views to the school's website.
While all the stories were medical because this is a medical school submission, they still covered a range of topics from treatments and pharmaceuticals to diagnostics and even genetics and physical anthropology. The stories were well written and interesting and captured the imagination of the reader. They were all short news stories and fit the category well.
High-end writing exhibited in various ways: tackles science, etc. seriously but also presents topics in ways in which the average reader can peruse them comfortably. Good use of quotes, which drive but do not overpower the writing. Impressive coverage in prestigious publications reflects smart choice of topics, good writing and appropriate targeting of releases.
