When Dennis Publishing’s The Week Junior announced it was launching a new wellbeing section this month, the children’s magazine became the latest in a string of publications to increase coverage of health and wellness trends. What’s behind the push, and what might the growing interest in wellness content mean for digital publishers in 2021?
While it’s not uncommon for publishers to put out more diet and fitness content at the beginning of each year, the shift we’re seeing in 2021 seems to go beyond the norm. Publishers say they are responding to increasing reader interest in wellness topics, as articles related to health and self-care are seeing greater search traffic than many other areas of interest.
Beyond dieting and fitness content, publishers say their readers are responding to articles about food, nutrition, and wellness trends. Content that involves psychology seems to be popping up more frequently in the mainstream media, as well. Part of the shift has certainly been caused by the pandemic. Mental health issues have been top of mind for the past year, particularly among the parents of young children. According to a 2020 Wellness Trends report, published by Well+Good, the pandemic has brought a greater sense of urgency to children’s wellness, and a younger generation of consumers is growing increasingly interested in self care as a way to deal with pandemic stressors.
The wellbeing section launched by The Week Junior later this month will focus on “creative expression and how that can help boost mental health.” It’s being developed in collaboration with a mental health charity organization. Editors at The Week Junior say the new content section will help the publication reach its goal of promoting positive thinking, encouraging healthy habits, and helping children look after their mental and physical health.
Bustle, Condé Nast, and theSkimm have all launched new content products that cater to the growing demand for health and wellness content, as well. Bustle Digital Group, in particular, says ad revenue from pharmaceutical and wellness advertisers is up 34% year on year. According to data from Comscore, 13% of Bustle’s traffic was to health-related content in March.
A number of local news websites and regional magazines have reported increased traffic to Top Doctors lists and Health and Wellness Directories. When readers have questions about finding medical providers in their communities, these “Best Of” lists and web directories are the first places they will usually go.
Recent forecasts by Euromonitor indicate that the health and wellness trend is here to stay. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, 50% of the most common New Year’s resolutions were related to health and wellness, particularly healthy eating, being more active, losing weight, and improving mental health. With more people staying at home these days, consumers are taking health matters into their own hands, and they are turning to online resources to seek out information they might otherwise ask friends or medical providers about in person.
If your publication would like to get in on this trend and integrate more health and wellness content, consider these five approaches:
- Publish a Top Doctors list, making sure to include all the best health and wellness professionals in your community.
- Build out a hub on your website where readers can easily access all of your health and wellness content.
- Develop an online directory with listings for local healthcare providers.
- Add a special health and wellness section to your community events calendar.
- Partner with a local healthcare organization on a sponsored section with health-focused content.
