Institute For The Future

"Waterfront: The Conde Nast of Web Health"

I have to confess--that is not my headline; it is Business Week's. But it is just so perfect that I couldn't resist using it.  A major source of health information online, founded in 2002, being compared to a worldwide magazine publishing powerhouse that has been around for 100 years?  New media, meet old media!

The Business Week article summarizes Waterfront Media's collection of health websites and looks at the evolution of the company since its acquisition of Revolution Health.  The Internet is the primary source of health information for 70% of U.S. adults, and as of July 2008, WebMD had dominated this space, with 17.3 million visitors that month.  At the time, Waterfront's Everyday Health was the second-most popular health-related website (with 14.7 million unique visitors), and Revolution Health was third (11.3 million visitors). Everyday Health now boasts it has 24.7 million unique visitors a month (with WebMD now at 21.2 visitors).

With Revolution Health in its fold, Waterfront Media could be called a powerhouse in the online health world.  But why the comparison to Conde Nast (which really should be credited to Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, founder of health-care consultant Think-Health and former IFTF affiliate, who is quoted in the Biz Week article)?  The company's business model is built on the idea of being the aggregator of a network of small, popular health-related websites.  These include well-known brands, such as South Beach Diet, alternative medicine guru Dr. Andrew Weil, and What to Expect — based on the pregnancy book read by 93% of first-time mothers in the U.S.; a complete list can be found here.