Beyond the Headlines, Again

Yesterday the Arthritis Today editors attended the annual conference of the Magazine Association of the Southeast (MAGS). After we spent a full day learning mostly about how to make our Web site better and more interactive, we spent a nice evening at the awards banquet and were thrilled to have received several awards. The Supplement Guide we published in the Sept-Oct 2006 issue won the gold award for Best Design, the magazine overall won a bronze award for General Excellence and we won a gold award in the Best Service Journalism category for an article that appeared in our July-August 2006 issue, called "Beyond the Headlines."

If you subscribe to the magazine, you might remember it. The article opened with a skeptical-looking man reading a newspaper (note the made-up headlines and article!) and addressed the flip-flops that broke in the news at that time. Incidentally, "that time," was two weeks before we went to production. This was an article that we felt we had to do and we had to do immediately. It absolutely had to go into the next issue, even if it meant long nights pulling together and analyzing the research on studies that were released then – ones that said calcium and vitamin D weren't as beneficial for bones as previously thought, that low-fat diets don't reduce risks of cancer or heart disease, and that glucosamine/chondroitin aren't really effective. We highlighted what most news reports said, gave you insight into reactions that followed the news and then told you the whole story, pointing out what other media failed to mention. Our contributing editor Denise Mann did a great job writing to our vision, and AT's editor-in-chief, Marcy O'Koon, gave me great input on my edited version to make it work even better. We really won the Gold Award last night for a great group effort.

It's ironic that this article won an award last night, considering that chondroitin is back in the news. Reports now say that chondroitin – on its own, anyway, and in three out of 22 studies – just isn't effective. However, consumers are buying more of it and saying it works for them. The bottom line is that the supplement isn't harmful, so most doctors are neither recommending its use or discontinuation. But here we are addressing this issue once again, as we'll continue to do. After all, once an article is published, that's not the end of it for us here. There is indeed far more beyond the headlines. Keep reading.