Provide names of other journalists involved.
Writer Sarah Elizabeth Richards Health director Julie Bain Editor-in-chief Sally Lee Creative director Jeffrey Saks
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
December 2011 issue
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Ladies’ Home Journal has long been known for its credibility, authority and leadership in women’s health. Part of the magazine’s mission has always been to bring vital and useful medical information to our millions of readers. As the magazine approaches a March 2012 redesign, it will have a new look, will feature more real women’s voices and will connect with readers in a more open, informal, honest and relatable way. As we evolved toward this new mission in 2011, we decided to tackle a tough topic that we might not have covered even a year or two ago: how women really drink, what truly defines healthy moderation, and how to balance the two. We asked writer Sarah Elizabeth Richards to begin with a friendly and relatable (but very candid) first-person account of her own drinking habits. Then we pushed her to look at the total body of evidence out there on what healthy moderation means–but not take the “easy out” and report this in the standard women’s service way by saying “one drink a day–period.” Sure, we all know the standard government guidelines, but we needed someone to question that and put it into context for us. That’s what she did, giving us a workable and very clear solution for our real lives: To be your absolute healthiest, you should stick to one drink a day. But as long as you don’t have more than three drinks in one day, or seven drinks in one week, you can play with the math in a way that works for you and still consider yourself a healthy, moderate drinker. The fun and edgy visuals added to the package–including the shocking actual-size 5-ounce glass of wine. That’s it?, you might ask.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Writer Sarah Elizabeth Richards did a lot of good old-fashioned reporting, reading reams of medical literature on the subject. We also blogged and tweeted a lot on this subject to generate reader interaction.
Explain types of human sources used.
Richards interviewed several top experts, including the preeminent alcohol researcher Eric Rimm, Sc.D., associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. She also spoke with Deidra Roach, M.D., a program officer in the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; and David J. Hanson, Ph.D., an alcohol researcher and professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Potsdam. We also tapped into our Facebook followers to get real-women’s stories and included several of those in a sidebar called “How Do You Find Moderation?”
Results:
This article is currently on the newsstand as we write this entry so it’s too early to have editorial scores or much feedback. But we have gotten a lot of traffic so far to the article online as well as to our blog about it. It’s got women talking about how they keep to moderation. We feel we created a new and extremely useful way for women to think about their drinking, and we got there by pushing beyond dutiful reporting of existing data.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
None.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Ladies’ Home Journal values its integrity, credibility and accuracy above all else in health coverage. However, we say don’t be afraid to push the envelope on government guidelines and sources. Don’t always dutifully report the party line. Digging deeper can get you to valuable–and useful–results.