Civic Innovation Lab funds MedCity News

Mary Vanac

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A next-generation news service that will tell the story of Northeast Ohio’s growing medical industry has been approved for a $30,000 grant from the Civic Innovation Lab in Cleveland.

The Lab also is giving two mentors to MedCity News Service, which will provide medical industry news to media and corporate clients, as well to individuals. The service is expected to launch in mid-January.

MedCity News is run by Chris Seper and Mary Vanac, two experienced journalists who have reported in Northeast Ohio for a combined 28 years. Both recently left The Plain Dealer to start MedCity News. Seper was the newspaper’s online medical editor; Vanac was a medical business writer.

Chris Seper

Starting in Northeast Ohio, MedCity News will report on innovation, influence and community in the medical industry – a major driver of the region’s economy. For media companies that are challenged to stretch resources as never before, MedCity News offers trusted reporting at a fraction of the cost of producing it themselves.

Thomas Mulready, founder of CoolCleveland, and Earl Pike, chief executive of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, will mentor MedCity News for the Lab. MedCity’s advisers include serial technology entrepreneur Christopher Celeste, and media analyst Lauren Rich Fine. Its technology partner is thunder::tech.

“The lab’s endorsement is a testament we’re heading in the right direction,” Seper said. “Our board and technology partner show we’re dedicated to forging an innovative path in journalism.”

Seper also worked as an assistant metro editor at The Plain Dealer, where as a reporter, he won several awards for his coverage of technology and energy. Before coming to Cleveland, Chris worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and also wrote for The Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor while working as a journalist in Cambodia.

Vanac covered the business of medicine for The Plain Dealer for three years. A career business writer in Northeast Ohio, she joined the Plain Dealer in 2000 after reporting at the Akron Beacon Journal. She, too, has won many journalism awards during her 19 years in the business.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.