• by Erik Sass , February 1, 2016

There is a major change of direction for health and wellness title Prevention, which is ditching advertising in its print edition concurrently with a re-launch and new editorial approach, per publisher Rodale, which announced the news Monday.

Prevention’s new business model, relying heavily on subscription revenue, represents a gamble that consumers will pay more for authoritative health-related content whose integrity is guaranteed — in part, by the absence of paid advertising or other commercial considerations.

The ad-free format will also limit the amount of clutter and allow the title to highlight important messages with greater emphasis.

As before, the revamped print magazine will continue to feature nutrition, fitness and lifestyle advice. It carries a new cover price of $4.99 per single copy, up from $3.99 currently, as well as a higher annual subscription price. 

The Web site will continue with its mostly ad-supported model, along with new paid content options for access to articles from the magazine.

The new business model at Prevention follows some other big changes in the women’s health and fitness category. Last year, Meredith closed the print edition of Fitness and merged its editorial operations and subscription base into Shape, which it acquired from American Media. (The Shape and Fitness Web sites continue to operate independently.

Not long afterward, Fitness launched a new online video workout portal called SweatTV, giving viewers the option of choosing one of three advertising messages or become a member.

Meredith also revealed plans to launch a new publication, Fit Pregnancy and Baby, set to debut sometime this month.

Separately, last week Rodale laid off around 40 staffers across the company, including positions at most of its major brands, equal to about 6% of the publisher’s total staff headcount. In December, the company announced that it would close one of its smaller enthusiast titles, Running Times.