One of the many fortunate things about living in Ohio is the chance for promising businesses to receive grants and other incentives. MedCity News closed on two such opportunities in the past month that will certainly help fuel our growth. We received the prestigious B Grant from The Innovation Fund and were certified for the state’s Technology Investment Tax Credit, which provides a 25 percent tax credit for those who invest in approved Ohio businesses.
These are key milestones for us, as we continue to join companies building a new model for our industry. In January of 2009, MedCity News was two ex-print reporters working out of the corner of an integrated marketing agency in Cleveland’s MidTown neighborhood. We’re now up to eight full-time employees in two states and customers that include national media outlets, some of the country’s elite hospital systems and other prominent businesses (and we have our own offices — located in Cleveland’s Shaker Square neighborhood).
We want to continue to build on our growth. We added a new bureau in Minnesota in December and our hope is to expand our sales force and continue to add new locations in the final months of 2010.
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You’re likely reading this news off our Web site, MedCityNews.com. But that’s only one part of our business. MedCity News leverages technology to deliver original reporting and custom content for organizations and individuals with a vested interest in healthcare. We have a syndication service that works like a niche version of The Associated Press; a Web site that caters to healthcare stakeholders, and a custom publishing service that creates made-to-order health content for anyone who needs it.
Based on that model and our growth, we received support from the Innovation Fund, which was founded by the Lorain County Community College Foundation. It supports, through grants and other means, technology-based entrepreneurial endeavors and emerging technology-based businesses. Its B Grant provides $100,000 that must be matched through private investment in a business (we won the group’s A Grant last year).
The Technology Investment Tax Credit program, meanwhile, allows Ohio investors to reduce their state taxes by 25 percent of the amount they invest in qualified, technology-based Ohio companies.
The media’s lean times are going to fade, as new models emerge that focus on serving customers who need quality content in a subject matter instead of publishing on a specific medium. Yahoo! recently acquired Associated Content. Show-business blogger Perez Hilton has a $20 million offer sheet. And there remain example after example after example of companies successfully publishing online and extending their reach through other revenue streams. Thanks to our growth and opportunities such as The Innovation Fund and tax credit, we hope to remain one of those examples.