For more than six months, this little site has been motoring along, offering news, views and other ’stuff’ every day. As the bio indicates, all this is brought to you by that guy with the glasses in the bio box. And some of you have reached out to offer pleasantries, opinions and the sporadic unmentionable.

Since this is a weekend, we thought we would give you an extra glimpse into the thinking behind this operation. And so here are a couple of recent interviews with Pharmalot. The first is from Doug Simon’s Vlog Views, which was conducted last month at an industry conference. You can actually see Pharmalot move and hear Pharmalot speak. So click on this to watch.

The next is an interview given BrandWeek, which writes that Pharmalot enjoys mayhem. In all honesty, we will be happy to settle for fresh info, new insights and, yes, a touch of controversy…

Straight Talk With a Journalist Who Turned Cutting-Edge Blogger.

Ed Silverman is the journalist who converted to blogging when the New Jersey Star-Ledger started Pharmalot. Actually, the Star-Ledger may never have launched this new venture if Ed hadn’t suggested this fresh new idea in the first place. It took a year, and many meetings, until finally in January 2007, Ed’s new stronghold was up and running.

And it is a good thing for all of us that the Star-Ledger agreed to support this upheaval in the pharma media world.

What Ed didn’t tell his bosses at the time was that he had been offered to join another major media conglomerate.

“It was a no-brainer” says Ed. “I was offered another opportunity, but I believed it would be more interesting to stay with the Star-Ledger and change the world with Pharmalot.”

And he hasn’t regretted that decision. Ed has been a journalist for roughly twenty-five years, but he’s never enjoyed as much visibility as he does now.

He is a living example of Andy Warhol’s famous quote, “In the future everyone will have their fifteen minutes of fame.”

The blogging revolution has given Ed a lot more than fifteen minutes. He gets interview requests all the time from conservative bastions of the old media, such as the New York Times, BBC, Pharmaceutical Executive, and Medical Marketing & Media. “That didn’t happen when I wrote for the paper,” he says.

The downside?

“It becomes obsessive. I work twelve to fourteen hour days. I even work on my vacation. It never stops.”

And as a result of this hard work, Pharmalot has grown from zero converts to a very substantial group of followers, one of the higher in the business of pharma blogging.

It doesn’t hurt that Ed has a background working for tabloids. “That’s where I learned what really gets people fired up; what brings in readers. And the same goes for writing online. Controversy and mayhem will always drive visitor traffic.”

Another reason for Ed’s success in a crowded field is that he doesn’t just know what to write about but also how to talk to his disciples. “I write Pharmalot as if I was doing radio. It’s more conversational, but I link back to many sources, so you still get the substance.”

So what’s next for Ed? “I’m going to build up readership for Pharmalot; then we’ll see. I’m committed to the site. Maybe it’s possible to build a new kind of media franchise in the healthcare area,” he says thoughtfully. “One where I don’t have to work quite as many hours.”

I point to Ed’s t-shirt, which says “Sick and tired of everything,” next to an image of Charlie Brown from Peanuts. Ed smiles. “It’s just me being a contrarian.”

- Peter Rost