• by Shankar Gupta , September 15, 2006

The New York Times Co.'s About.com has expanded its health offerings with the acquisition of Calorie-Count.com, a diet and weight loss site, and will begin to incorporate content and tools from the site into its own nutrition and weight loss verticals in the coming weeks.

Scott Meyer, About.com CEO, said the company intended to tap into Calorie-Count.com's growing audience to boost its health and food verticals. "It's a fast-growing business that by itself is a good property to own," he said. "It makes two of our largest channels, health and food, much stronger." Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Currently, the integration of the two sites is limited to links from About.com's health and food verticals to Calorie-Count.com, and links back to About from Calorie-Count.com. The links went live Thursday, a week after the deal was finalized. The About.com ad sales team will sell Calorie-Count.com's inventory.

Marjorie Martin, About.com's general manager for health, said the acquisition is part of a broader expansion of the portal's health offerings. The site intends to beef up women's health, heart disease and cancer sections, among others, in the fourth quarter.

Martin also said that About.com will hire extra staff to support the expansion--including editors from the health journalism field, as well as board-certified physicians to review the health content.