Glam Media, one of the largest publishing and advertising networks on the Web, is revealing its third branded content channel today: health-focused Bliss. Bliss, which will be a content hub of health and wellness sites, joins male-focused vertical Brash and womens entertainment, style and fashion channel Glam.com. Glam’s networks currently have a total reach of 90 million people a month in the U.S and 200 million monthly visitors globally.
Glam says that traditional health and wellness sites (i.e. WebMD) have more narrowly focused on more medical and condition-related topics and are missing the opportunity to reach a wider audience with the prevention and wellness angle. Bliss’ content will include information about diet and nutrition, empowerment, alternative healing, green living, exercise, fitness, parenting, pregnancy and more.
Bliss will also pursue a more social angle to health and wellness and will aim to connect and engage women in a community around these issues. While Bliss.com’s content will sway towards women, it won’t exclusively focus on women’s issues and content (as is the case with Glam.com) and will feature select male-oriented information. The Bliss Community by Glam will launched to the public later this spring and Glam’s CEO Samir Arora tells us that the company plans to roll out other verticals in 2011.
Glam’s move into health and wellness content isn’t surprising. Back in 2008, Glam was reportedly in talks to merge with AOL founder Steve Case’s health portal Revolution Health.
And the demand for health and wellness online content is on the rise. According to a Pew Internet & American Life survey from 2010, eight in every ten internet users have looked online for health information, and the number of Americans who get exercise and fitness information online has grown by 88% since 2002. Not only is there the tremendous opportunity to reach a greater audience but Glam will also appeal to a new set of advertisers in these segments.
2010 was a busy year for Glam, which launched a brand-targeted ad serving platform, Glam Adapt, and branched out from its singular focus on women’s sites to include men’s sports sites as well. The company also made a number of key hires and is pushing a social strategy.
And if the IPO reports are true, Glam will have a big 2011 as well. Industry sources tell us that investment banks have been actively courting Glam for a potential public offering. And the tech IPO market is heating up, with Skype, LinkedIn, Pandora and even possibly Facebook, gearing up public offerings in the next year.
