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Archive for the ‘Healthline’ Category

Healthline’s Semantic Ad Network for Health Content

• Posted June 9th 2008
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• by Janice

Healthline, announced today its entry into the vertical ad network business with its healthcare-focused media network called HealthSTAT™ On-Demand.  HealthSTAT is a welcome addition for medical and healthcare publishers that need new options for revenue generation beyond AdSense and the other general search engine ad networks.  HealthSTAT joins other recent entries in the healthcare ad network space, including IAC/The Health Central Network and Glam Media. Healthline’s initial group of publishing partners includes some trusted traditional brand names and some new entrants (AARP, USNews.com, Time Inc.’s new Health.com, PracticeFusion, Elder.com, HealthPricer, and JustAnswer), as well as its own Healthline.com portal and a new consumer health portal to be launched by United Health later this year, MyOptumHealth. 

We’ve noted before that online health sites that rely primarily on pharma advertising revenue are showing slow and disappointing results. It’s time to think beyond the pharma companies as the only source of ad dollars for consumer health sites.  What impresses me about Healthline (an InfoCommerce 2006 winner), is its understanding of sponsorship opportunities. Its recent deal with Aetna and the signing of United Health in this new ad network show that Healthline recognizes insurers are good publishing partners.  It is important to note that these same insurers should be good prospects as advertisers on the HealthSTAT ad network, too. 

There will undoubtedly be more entrants in the healthcare vertical ad network market. Healthline, with its much-touted medical taxonomy, has built a good technical foundation on which to build its ad network.  But it’s Healthline’s demonstrated ability to form partnerships with important stakeholders that puts it ahead of competitors.

 

Health Content: Going for the Gold, Not Glitz

• Posted March 13th 2008
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• by Janice

Healthline, which maintains its own consumer healthcare portal site while also licensing technology and content to other healthcare sites, has announced an agreement with Aetna to supply Healthline’s search and related tools to Aetna’s new SmartSource healthcare search engine.

This deal serves as a reminder that the open Web is not the only place where healthcare consumers connect with online medical information. While much attention is being lavished on the glitzy consumer health portals, few have noted that most of them are too broadly focused and without differentiation. Everything from healthy lifestyle information, disease-specific information, to drug data, calorie counters, and social networking discussion groups are all thrown together on one site. Sites such as Revolution Health, WebMD, iVillage Your Total Health, About.com/Health are all beginning to look alike.

While the overabundance of content is becoming increasingly hard to navigate, the reason behind it is clear – ad dollars. All of these health care portals are following the money, and they need to keep building inventory to attract ever more advertisers. While the potential advertising pot is in the billions of dollars, it is unclear who, among the current crop of consumer healthcare sites, will attract sufficient traffic and ad dollars to be the long term winners in this very competitive space.

What does this mean for publishers of medical information and healthcare-related content. It means that expected revenue from ad-share deals with consumer healthcare portals on the open Web remains unpredictable, and wise publishers should also seek deals with alternative distribution channels like employee benefits sites that are sponsored by the healthcare payers: employers and health insurers. In the Healthline deal, the Aetna Navigator site is on the Internet with access by password. In other cases, employers host Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) on intranets and typically include information about all benefits programs. But regardless of the implementation, these sites deliver a sizeable audience that is craving content that is more tailored to their needs, and health content publishers would be wise to pursue these less obvious but still rich channels.