In our latest journalist Q&A, we caught up with our former Spark colleague, George Underwood, Senior Reporter at Citeline.

George shares his views on the most exciting trends in life sciences and his experience in PR and journalism, having worked on both sides of the fence.

Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your career journey so far – from early journalism positions, through to PR roles and back to journalism at Citeline?

I always wanted a job related to writing, and journalism seemed like a good fit, since I loved the idea of being at the forefront of world events. But in the end, I did a pretty general degree and mostly fell into my first position working at a pharma trade publication. I knew nothing about the pharma industry when I started, so it was a bit of a trial by fire, but it turned out to be far more interesting than I’d expected. I think it’s the mix of groundbreaking science and political drama that really makes it fun.

There was always a lot of push and pull between editorial content and commercial content at every publication I worked for, and eventually I ended up working more on the paid content side – at which point a jump into PR seemed fairly natural. People always asked me how I found the transition – but I think the skill sets are so similar that it was much smoother than they assume.

Getting back into journalism was also pretty serendipitous. I’ve been able to use a lot of the tech industry knowledge I gathered in PR to write more about medtech at Medtech Insight and In Vivo – which has been a whole new sector to learn, but one that’s equally as interesting as pharma.

How has your experience working in both PR and journalism shaped your perspective today?

I’d like to think I’m more empathetic towards PR people now! But it is very useful to have a well-rounded view of the entire industry. I think both sides can be a bit opaque sometimes, but, as I’ve mentioned, they’re far more similar than people will admit. I think it’s just really important to keep those communication channels open – which has become harder for everyone post-COVID.

At the same time, now that I understand the mechanics of how a press release gets put together and pitched out, I can have a better idea of what other information might lie behind the headline and how to ask the right follow-up questions.

Is there something you wish you’d known as a PR professional that only became clear once you were sitting back in the newsroom? Equally, what have you taken from your time in PR that have proved most valuable as a journalist?

I felt very guilty for all the press releases I’d ignored once I started to pitch them out myself! But when I first got into PR, I realised I wished I’d known as a journalist what a goldmine of information PR can be if you’re able to be proactive and be the one reaching out to them. Agencies and clients are sitting on more insights than what a standard press release might suggest.

Meanwhile, getting the chance to see other journalists at work was very enlightening. Previously, I’d had a bit of imposter syndrome being a layman in life sciences interviewing people who were much smarter than me. But I got to see how other journalists navigated that, and how they often kept interviews simple and direct, which has been very useful for more recent interviews I’ve done.

When I went back into back into journalism, I was reminded how important in-person meetings with PR people were. It’s led to a lot of good contacts and stories. All my PR roles were post-COVID, so it was more difficult for me to set up those meetings than it might have been in previous years. But hopefully that will become more common again in the future.

What are your thoughts on AI in journalism and PR – do you receive AI generated pitches and content and how do you deal with it?

To be honest, I think there’s always been the same divide between formulaic press releases that are mass-mailed to every journalist and personalized pitches that are tailored specifically for me. It’s hard to tell if there’s been a major increase in AI-written press releases, but it doesn’t make much difference since I’ve always been far more likely to engage with emails that have an obvious human touch.

I’m sure a lot of the reports and quotes I find when researching my stories have AI in them, but it can be very hard to tell when it comes to more formal writing. It’s made me more interested in doing phone or in-person interviews, where I can get (deliberately imperfect) quotes that make a story feel more human. It also raises the value of writing longer stories that readers know an LLM would struggle to create.

What stories or trends in life sciences are exciting you most right now?

It’s hard not to be entranced by the potential of AI in healthcare (despite my scepticism of using it in journalism). I’ve been covering it since it’s very earliest days, and every time I think I’m going to get bored of it something new comes along that dazzles me with how transformative it could be. The potential for better diagnosis is massive, and that has knock-on effects for the effectiveness of drugs. And at the same time, that brings up a lot of questions about regulations and costs, which are always interesting to cover.

I’ve also been writing a lot about Alzheimer’s diagnostics and treatments recently. It really feels like this area is at the stage oncology was a decade ago, when we’re right on the cusp of some amazing advances, which is going to be very exciting to cover in the coming years. I’ve heard a lot of people say we could soon be treating Alzheimer’s similarly to how we treat high cholesterol.

What’s your favourite story you’ve written?

Only a few months into my first ever journalism role I unexpectedly got the chance to interview Alastair Campbell at a conference on mental health. He’s still the most famous person I’ve ever interviewed! I got some good insights out of him – but I do wish I’d gotten to interview him when I was a more experienced journalists, since I probably could have asked him some much more interesting questions.

If you could interview anyone in the life sciences industry, who would it be and why?

I’d love to interview Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentie, Nobel-prize winning inventors of CRISPR gene editing – probably two of the most intelligent living scientists. It’s such a mind-boggling technology that it would be great to pick their brains about the discovery process.

Finally, we always like to end by asking journalists for one piece of advice. Based on your experience in both journalism and PR, what’s the one thing you’d like every PR professional to know?

Every journalist and every publication is different, so it can be hard to give wide-ranging advice. For example, we’re a lot more focused on interviews at Citeline than at some of my previous publications. But the more successful pitches are always those that tap into broader trends rather than solely pushing product news, and that’s been true in all my roles, both in journalism and PR.