Monday, February 2, 2009

The HealthCentral - Wellsphere Acquisition

A number of MS Bloggers were approached by Dr. Georg Rutledge and Wellsphere to join their network of Health Bloggers and did so. By now, those of you who did join the Wellsphere Health Blogger Network have already received the Open Letter.

An Open Letter...

January 26, 2009

Dear Wellsphere Community Members, Health Mavens, and Health Bloggers,

Earlier today HealthCentral, a leading publisher of over 35 websites for individuals facing specific health challenges, announced that it has acquired Wellsphere.

This is an incredibly exciting moment for every contributor to HealthCentral’s and Wellsphere’s communities, and for the 10 million health consumers who, each month, seek and find powerful information and invaluable support from each of you. Our communities offer unparalleled insight, practical advice, and inspiration for people who want to live better and fuller lives.

Read the entire letter.

Read the Press Release: HealthCentral acquires Wellsphere.

Most important are the questions bloggers and experts may have regarding the acquisition:

Questions about HealthCentral and the Wellsphere Acquisition

3 comments:

  1. I was approached by Wellsphere with an E-mail telling me to came and get my award, that they thought my blog was "one of the best." That smelled like Phishing to me, so after visiting an empty website they linked to, I deleted it - then I started noticing the award popping up all over the place.

    I am the first to admit that MS has me cognitively compromised, so I didn't want to be part of something I didn't fully understand. Thanks for looking into this, Lisa.

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  2. Hi Lisa--

    I mentioned to you my strange experience (privately) with Wellsphere. I had wanted to do semi-feeds to keep my content on my site and let people come and visit me if they wanted to--- I think this is termed "not giving away the farm?" I didn't become a "Top Blogger" or whatever they term it, but I changed my mind after the acquisition notice---thanks for the heads-up---and told them to remove my partial feeds, which they did. It was as if I had never been there: no account and no trace of me. Strange, but it shows that you can be removed from this site if you so choose. Just in case anyone wants to be removed.

    Another strange thing: "Dr. Rutledge" emailed me and wanted to speak to me over the phone about WHY I didn't want to be a part of Wellsphere. I didn't take him up on this.....Is he even a real person I wonder?!...

    Anyway, thanks Lisa for investigating this. You really ought to be employed at Snopes.com.

    Fondly,

    Jen

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  3. Lisa,

    Thanks for the heads up on this. I have just recently been getting emails from them and I'm a little confused. I think I will pass on this "opportunity".

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