New York — Yahoo! Inc. is poised to announce a content-licensing agreement with Waterfront Media’s Everyday Health Network, which has recently merged with Steve Case’s Revolution Health Network, and is challenging WebMD to become the top online health-information company.
Under the agreement, Yahoo! Health will receive content from several of the Everyday Health portfolio of health sites, such as WhatToExpect.com, a site of the bestselling series of What To Expect pregnancy and parenting books, JillianMichaels.com of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, SouthBeachDiet.com from the best selling diet book of all time, and RevolutionHealth.com.
Everyday Health has been on a speedy growth line as it looks to establish itself as a challenger to category leader WebMD.com. The Yahoo deal marks Everyday Health’s first licensing deal with a major portal.
“We are very excited,” Mike Keriakos, president and co-founder of Waterfront Media, told MM&M. “Yahoo! Health is powering a substantial amount of content,” said Keriakos, noting that the company hopes the partnership will translate into unique viewers on the Everyday Health Network portfolio of sites -– in numbers “significantly north of a million,” according to Keriakos.
“Yahoo! Health’s decision to work with Waterfront Media clearly demonstrates that The Everyday Health Network’s content is the gold-standard in online health. Our portfolio of experts and brands from across the entire health spectrum, including original content from our flagship site, EverydayHealth.com, enables consumers to live healthier lives every day. This is a win-win partnership as the Yahoo! Health platform will help us reach a relevant audience, engage them on a deeper level and increase the overall number of visitors to the Network,” said Keriakos.
Yahoo! stands to make money in two ways from the deal. It will earn revenue whenever it drives Yahoo! users to Everyday Health sites that charge subscription fees. Yahoo! will also get paid a share of the ad revenue based on traffic it sends to certain Everyday Health properties.
Keriakos cited comScore numbers in support of Everyday Health’s predominant position over WebMD, in terms of unique visitors — at least for the moment. “We are highly confident that we will be ahead of WebMD during 4Q and 1Q,” said Keriakos, noting that he cannot predict what kinds of acquisitions or other initiatives WebMD might roll out in order to compete for viewers.
The traffic from the combined company’s 24 sites puts it ahead of WebMD, the dominant destination in the category.
The deal underscores how competitive the online health-care category is with several companies vying to be the leader. Barely a few weeks back, Everyday Health got a boost when Waterfront Media announced a deal to merge with Revolution Health Network, backed by former AOL co-founder Steve Case.
In addition to the current arrangement, as Waterfront Media continues to grow and add additional properties to its portfolio, Yahoo! Health will have access to utilize any current and future content with attributions and links back to relevant Waterfront Media sources.
“With the health industry one of the fastest growing segments online, consumers are looking for Web sites that provide trusted and reliable health-related content,” said Michael Yang, general manager and vice president of Yahoo! Health. “At Yahoo! Health we are constantly looking at how we can advance our editorial library through partnerships with leading providers of health information like Waterfront Media. We are thrilled to be the first company to leverage Waterfront Media’s new open syndication model and know that the company’s wealth of healthy living, diet & fitness, and pregnancy-related topics will provide a valuable resource to our users.”
Yahoo has an ad-distribution deal with Everyday Health’s rival WebMD Health Corp but not a content partnership, the paper said.
Yahoo and Everyday Health could not immediately be reached for comment.