Bringing together a team of dedicated writers, content developers, marketing and administration staff, Alastair led Medical News Today to become one of the top 10 health websites in the world.
Ranked in the top 360 websites in the United States and top 120 websites in the United Kingdom (source: Quantcast), Medical News Today reached more than 15 million unique monthly visitors, serving over 20 million pages.
Taking his company from a tiny seed to one generating a million-pound annual turnover required Alastair to use strategic business and leadership skills. By surrounding himself with talented people who shared his energy and philosophy, Alastair ensured that quality content was a core strength of the business and that the company was not just keeping up with existing trends, but setting new ones.
Although the company only had 15 members of staff, with efficient strategy Medical News Today was able to compete with some of the biggest names in internet health media, achieving search engine rankings and domain authority (88 /100) that belied its organisation size.
In March 2016, the Medical News Today website and brand, along with sister website MediLexicon, were acquired by Healthline Media – the second largest health media network on the internet. This move bolstered Healthline’s digital health reach to 61 million unique visitors per month.
Throughout his time as head of the company, Alastair chose to support causes close to his heart, providing funding to help treat children with medical illnesses and disabilities. One such child was Daniel Pretty, a young boy living with cerebral palsy. You can read the story of his treatment in this article.
Alastair believes in the philosophy that as a founder, you strive to build a company that makes an impact. Medical News Today exemplified this.
“Healthline purchased Medical News Today in March, 2016. Alastair was a founder of the business and became a key element in the success of the acquisition. Alastair was open, honest and transparent during the stressful process which allowed for the transaction to happen quickly and with confidence. He had assembled an incredible team which led to a very successful post-acquisition experience.
Alastair remained supportive post-acquisition continuing to do contract work for Healthline. His drive, ambition and honesty are a few of his most valuable traits which we still appreciate today.”
Cheryl Kim
SVP, Finance
Healthline
