• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 19, 2007

Meredith is riding the online health information boom with the acquisition of Healia.com, a consumer health search engine. The buy is part of the company's aggressive online build-out, coming on the heels of earlier purchases of three online marketing service firms: O'Grady Meyers, Genex and New Media Strategies.

Meredith group President Jack Griffin remarked that "the demand for health information is booming and of particular interest to women." The acquisition of a health "vertical search" reference site complements the personal health coverage in Meredith's biggest brands, he says. "Providing access to trusted health information is a core component of our leading brands--including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, American Baby, Ladies' Home Journal, More and Fitness."

Meredith plans to integrate Healia's search technology into its various magazine Web sites in the near future.

The online expansion also fits nicely with an increase in healthcare-related ad dollars in consumer magazines.

Pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertising in particular has become a mainstay for consumer magazines; Meredith is one of the main beneficiaries. In the face of increasing criticism from DTC opponents of alleged distortions or simplifications in pharmaceutical ads, magazines offer sufficient inventory space for disclaimers, warnings and explanations--in some cases up to four page-faces in length.

During 2006, overall pharmaceutical ad spending surged 14%, and according to TNS MI's most recent data, it jumped another 6.7% during the first quarter of this year. Magazines were the second-fastest-growing ad medium behind the Internet during the first quarter of this year, according to estimates by TNS MI, Nielsen Monitor-Plus and the Magazine Publishers of America.

Jon Swallen, senior vice president-research at TNS MI, suggested that increased pharma spending is a key reason. During the first quarter of 2007, total DTC spending rose 6.7% to $1.2 billion among the media tracked by TNS MI, but spending in consumer magazines soared 25.5% to $376.2 million.

However, the same survey found that DTC spending on the Internet rose only 4% during the first quarter--despite the fact that an estimated 8 million Americans visit health-related sites each day, according to Meredith. Vertical search may be one of the most effective ways to deliver relevant ads to consumers. Healia, for example, allows consumers to personalize searches with filters that narrow results by gender, ace, racial/ethnic group and a variety of "interest" areas, including prevention, causes and risks, symptoms, diagnostic tests and treatment.