The Doctor is Moving
by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 6/9/1997
"It's like an author moving to another publishing house," said Dan Okrent, Time Inc.'s director of New Media, after Time Inc. announced the acquisition of the "Ask Dr. Weil" Web Site, the tremendously popular (more than one million hits in April) alternative-health-information site that is now part of HotWired's site. Time Inc. not only gets a "branded" Web site, but a bestselling author as well. Dr. Andrew Weil's 8 Weeks to Optimum Health has spent 10 weeks on PW's bestseller list and, after eight printings, has a total of 575,000 copies. Okrent told PW, "I looked smart when the book went on the bestseller lists, but I've known his work for many years." The deal, for Web rights alone, includes the site's URL (http://www.hotwired.com/drweil/), which will move to the Pathfinder site (http://www.pathfinder.com) in June. Okrent expects to "improve the site, make it deeper, and add stuff" on sports, sexual health, news, women's health and to expand the site's bookselling area, which currently features a variety of health titles by Weil and others. Perhaps the move is a sign of things to come in the Web world.
