Diana Marszalek 14 Dec 2021 // 12:40PM GMT
NEW YORK — Finn Partners has acquired the platform Medika Life, adding a second healthcare news and information outlet to its new content unit.
Medika's news and opinion content targets medical professionals, garnering more than 100,000 monthly readers, Finn Partners said. Roughly 40 contributors cover topics including general medicine, health policy, eco health, disease awareness and issues of interest for patients, payers and providers.
Medika will function as a standalone Finn operation overseen by global health chair and editor-in-chief Gil Bashe and integrated marketing managing partner Noah Finn, who will serve as co-publishers. Co-founders Robert Turner and Dr. Jeffrey Livingston will become founding editors-in-chief emeritus.
While Medika does publish the likes of press releases (which are grouped and identified in a special section), the site will not be allied with Finn clients or others, Finn said. “It’s a platform with an authentic voice on health and we want to bring that forward,” he said.
The Medika acquisition signals Finn's interest in growing its new health content creation and distribution unit, which launched with the agency’s purchase of The Pharmacy Podcast Network in November.
It also is the latest step in a larger effort by Finn to grow the size and reach of its healthcare group.
In July, the firm promoted managing partner Kristie Kuhl to global health practice leader, assuming the oversight responsibilities that had belonged to Bashe. Bashe now focuses on efforts to grow the operation including acquisitions, agencywide strategy and making healthcare comms part of other disciplines’ offerings.
Just weeks earlier, the firm acquired Agency Ten22, which specializes in health information technology. Finn Partners also bought healthcare specialists Lazar Partners in the US and Medical & Health Consulting in Paris in 2019.