New York Times: A Medical Publisher’s Unusual Prescription: Online Ads. Reed Elsevier, which publishes more than 400 medical and scientific journals, . . . introduced a Web portal, www.OncologySTAT.com, that gives doctors free access to the latest articles from 100 of its own pricey medical journals and [] plans to sell advertisements against the content.
As we all know, Reed Elsevier also happens to own Lexis-Nexis, a subscription-based legal research tool that many attorneys use. I think that these companies are starting to realize that more people are doing their own research online, and not necessarily through subscription-based websites. And, while they can squeeze a good handful of dollars from medical and legal professionals, they may be able to make even more money from these same professionals by opening up their resources to the general public.
One reply on “Reed Elsevier Changes Business Models”
I thought that Reed Elsevier already had billions of dollars in advertising-based properties (e.g. most of their B2B division) for decades. The fact is that there are only certain professional markets where that approach works to cover the cost of the more valuable content we need. Let’s face it. We (lawyers) don’t control as many purchasing decisions in the same way a practicing doctors control pharmaceutical purchase decisions. I’m not expecting to get my more useful legal products for free anytime soon from West or Lexis!
P