notes Art Wilschek, executive director of advertising for The New England Journal of Medicine. That includes building circulation on lists of high-prescribing physicians, subdividing specialties (such as oncologists who specialize in breast cancer, colon cancer, etc), and matching an advertiser's list of target physicians to the specific circulation of a journal. The competitive world that Bigelow described has taken a toll on traditional journal advertising. As Rob Dhoble, president of Diversified Agency Services Healthcare, put it: "Twenty years ago, from an agency perspective, a medical journal was close to a sacred cow. But as other media choices appeared, the money had to come from the sacred cow." And that is what has happened. As journal advertising has been suppressed, particularly in multi-specialty journals, billions of dollars have been channeled into direct-to-consumer advertising, plus smaller but growing amounts into new media. Even so, journals still maintain their unique value from an advertising perspective. As Elisa Cooper-Broski, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Corbett Accel Healthcare Group, put it: "Journals do two jobs better than any other medium. First, they provide their readers with the most credible editorial content possible. Second, they provide advertisers with a highly cost-effective medium that has very stable readership." Other advertising executives echo that view. Jay Carter, senior vice president, director of client services at Abelson-Taylor, said it this way: "We believe that medical journal advertising remains the most cost-effective way to achieve frequency at a good reach with physicians." Paul Nani, executive vice president, Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Advertising, offered this sound bite: "Journals are a high-reach medium that allows us to align messaging amid relevant and trusted content."
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