Frequently Asked Questions
What is Health & Life Magazine? It’s a unique magazine customized for hospitals. Health & Life is designed to make hospitalsstand out in a competitive market.
What makes Health & Life unique? Four things: the name, the content, the size of the magazine and its availability in multimedia formats—a digital edition, an audio podcast, a radio show, a live health expo. Think of the print magazine as the hub of a multimedia brand that you control.
What’s so special about the name? The name Health & Life is particularized for every marketplace. A local hospital edition is called Tulsa Health & Life or Tidewater Health & Life. As an alternative, your hospital’s name can be part of the title, as in Methodist Hospital’s Health & Life.
What’s unique about the content? Its breadth and quality. The magazine is about medicine and much more. Health & Life is visually gorgeous, and the quality of the writing is simply unparalleled among hospital magazines. Readers see this quality as an implicit reflection of your clinical quality.
Do lifestyle features really belong in a hospital magazine? Absolutely. Lifestyle features are a magnet for readers, meaning that exposure to your marketing messages is maximized. Health & Life has high pass-along readership and a long shelf life.
How many pages are in an issue of Health & Life? Standard editions are 24 pages, 36 pages and 52 pages. But everything is customizable.
How many times a year is Health & Life published? That’s up to you. You can choose anywhere from once a year to six issues a year. Most hospitals choose quarterly. In effect, Health & Life can fit any budget.
"It was the best marketing decision I've made in five years."
Frank J. Vozos, M.D.,Executive Director, Monmouth Medical Center
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Can I have exclusivity in my area? Yes, that’s automatic. Only one hospital per market may publish Health & Life. You can lock out the competition—or vice versa, of course.
How many pages are devoted to the hospital? That varies by issue size. In the 52-page magazine, the hospital gets 20 pages—a custom cover, 12 editorial pages and 7 advertising pages. You can add more custom pages if needed.
Can I also personalize the pages that aren’t devoted to the hospital? Yes, every article can be personalized.
I love the magazine, but I have reservations about the glossy paper. Could I have Health & Life on matte paper? Yes, that’s an option. You can also print on a heavier cover stock and heavier interior pages.
The Health & Life program sounds very flexible. Can you accommodate inserts, ride-alongs, gatefolds…? Sure. We’ve done all of those things for our client hospitals.
Where do your articles come from? Our editorial staff writes most of what appears in Health & Life; some are specialists in medical writing, and some in lifestyle writing. Hospitals typically prefer to supply text for their pages, so that’s become our standard procedure. If you prefer for us to write your hospital articles, we can do that.
"The last edition looks wonderful! Good job!"
Lori Zavada, Baptist Healthcare
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Why do some editions of Health & Life carry advertising? In select markets, we sell local advertising, which creates a thicker magazine and adds another kind of value for readers. This is strictly optional.
What is “Total Health”? It’s a special issue of Health & Life—a health planning guide that’s designed to be saved by readers. It you decide to publish just one issue of Health & Life a year, this is the best choice.
Health & Life sounds expensive. Is it? It’s a lot more affordable than you might think. We’ve designed the program with options so it fits most community hospital budgets. You select the number of pages per issue, the number of issues per year, the circulation, the distribution method.
What kind of commitment do I need to make? It’s very easy to try Health & Life: A single issue is the minimum commitment. We know from experience that hospitals immediately love Health & Life and stick with it.
So, why do hospitals love it? It gets noticed and gets results. Physicians are big supporters because the magazine raises their profile and patients comment on it. Foundations see results when they profile donors and promote capital campaigns. The public responds to calls to action. And because of all this, Health & Life makes hospital marketers and senior executives look good.
What are the unique benefits of Health & Life for hospitals? Like other hospital publications, Health & Life is a branding tool and a vehicle for consumer marketing and education. But it’s also an authentic magazine—a local media brand that you control. It serves as the ultimate positive PR vehicle because you control the news about your hospital. And with multimedia add-ons, the magazine can be the centerpiece of an integrated marketing program.
How will you measure R.O.I.? We’ll do an annual reader study. For quantitative measurement of financial effects, we can help you with a patient match study.
Has Health & Life won any awards? Yes. It’s twice won Gold in the Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards and the Judge's Choice Aster Award for Excellence in Medical Marketing. We don’t enter a lot of awards competitions, but when we do, we tend to win.
How much experience do you have in hospital marketing? We’ve been helping hospitals market themselves since 1992, first as Dowden Health Media and then as Wainscot Media, which began as a division of Dowden.
I’ve worked with a custom publisher in the past, and it felt like I was part of a newsletter mill. How are you different? When you talk to our partner hospitals, you’ll find we’re known for client service. We work collaboratively and consultatively to help you reach objectives.
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