Medical Publishers of the World Unite

Medical publishers, like the record industry and so many industries before them that have been caught unprepared for the rapid shift in media habits towards the Internet are practicing what Don Tapscott, in Wikinomics refers to as “Tarzan Economics”. That is to say they are desperately holding onto the vine in their hand (print business) for fear of falling to the jungle floor. They refuse to let go and grab the e-vine to the future without first having it securely in their hands. This is a very conservative strategy… too much so.

The problem medical publishers are facing is that while they have been grasping the vine of print, any company who’s started in the last 15 years has started with an eye toward where the market “will be” not where it was at the time. Thus companies like WebMD (and the dozens of companies they’ve bought such as eMedicine, Medscape, RxList, etc…) as well as the numerous other “digital-only” publishers such as MDlinx and others, are all taking significant share of the “new” media pie, at the expense of the traditional publishers.

Medical publishers need to re-evaluate who their competitors ARE in the new media landscape. Collectively, all traditional medical publishers only make up a small portion of the media consumption habits that are occuring on the Internet.

The competition has changed.

e-Healthcare Solutions works with medical publishers to harness their collective strengths, and support both their online advertising sales and marketing challenges to provide a viable competitive alternative to WebMD for Pharmaceutical marketers and their agencies. WebMD is losing share, so it’s working.

Medical publishers of the world unite!