After nearly five years, and more than 300 posts, Sanofi is set to close the doors on new content for its corporate blog.
In its place the French pharma company will direct visitors to a new Our Stories section on its US website as it follows an industry-wide trend to move away from stand-alone blogs.
The only surprising thing about the news is that Sanofi has followed good online practice by telling the audience of Speaking of Sanofi about the changes before they take place.
Sanofi’s senior director of content and channel management Mary Halliwell explained: “As Sanofi US continues to evolve, we believe it is more important than ever to share our stories – and at the same time ensure you can find them easily.”
The new section will, Halliwell said, be “a go-to location for the Sanofi US perspective” on topics such as science, innovation, education and awareness.
In the last couple of years a number of prominent blogs from pharma firms have either ceased publishing new content or disappeared from the web altogether.
GSK’s More than Medicine last published a post in August 2016 and AstraZeneca’s LabTalk has been silent since December 2015.
AZ did, however, follow the same path as Sanofi when it stopped posting to its AstraZeneca Health Connections blog last November, opening up a new AZ & You blog within its US corporate website.
But in the case of J&J’s previously long-running JnJBTW blog visitors are redirected to the homepage of the firm’s corporate website, while Pfizer’s Think Science blog can’t be reached at all.
It’s a trend that leaves Lilly’s LillyPad blog as one of the few dedicated pharma corporate blogs remaining, at least for now.
