Rodale Takes Minority Stake in Mothernature.com

Posted on October 25, 1999

Rodale has taken a minority equity position in MotherNature.com, an Internet retailer and information source for natural and healthy living products. The agreement makes MotherNature.com the exclusive VSM site with access to online content from health books published by Rodale. Rodale also has equity positions in Petsmart.com, where it provides the site content from Pets: part of the family magazines and book lines, and in Women.com, where it provides content from Prevention magazine and books and New Woman magazine.

"Rodale's web strategy calls for us to develop innovative partnerships with companies that combine a proven record of success in their niche with an outstanding business plan for the future," says Pat Corpora, Managing Director of Rodale Interactive and President of Rodale Books. "MotherNature.com has quickly become one of the most-visited health sites on the Internet, offering consumers thousands of natural and healthy living products. The site also has extensive health information from a panel of health and medical professionals. They are a perfect e-commerce fit with Rodale's wealth of content on healthy, active living information. This is a perfect example of the alliance model we think will lead to success on the Web."

The Rodale relationship will broaden MotherNature.com's content, offering users access to text from Rodale's collection of health books as well as selected columns from Prevention magazine. Visitors to MotherNature.com will be able to search the Web versions of Rodale books, as well as purchase the books on the MotherNature.com site. A search engine will show all of MotherNature.com's encyclopedia content, health journal articles and hyperlinks to Rodale books.