Medical journals, like most periodicals offering specialized coverage of technical issues aimed at a single professional audience, have long been able to rely on hefty subscription prices for most or all income. But OncologySTAT.com, a portal aimed specifically at doctors who treat cancer that debuted this past weekend, is trying a different tack, as the NYT reports. The ad-supported site is published by B2B company Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) (NYSE:RUK), whose 400 other medical-field periodicals tend to adhere to the category’s traditional revenue model.

In return for access to the site, which aggregates articles on cancer-related topics from Elsevier’s other medical journals, oncologists have to provide some person information that medical marketers might find useful. The company thinks OncologySTAT can attract 150,000 professionals and can help it capture revenue from the healthy, if slowing, online ad market. One obstacle with which it must contend: the increasingly crowded “health news portal” space, including AOL (NYSE: TWX) founder Steve Case’s RevolutionHealth.com, Medscape.com, the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed.gov, and the National Cancer Institute’s cancer.gov. Despite the growing list of medical info sites, the Times notes that pharmaceutical advertising, has barely been tapped, with only 3 percent of that sector’s ad dollars going to support websites. If OncologySTAT can make a go of it—and not cannibalize its high-priced journals—Elsevier will consider similar sites devoted to such subjects as neurology, psychiatry, cardiology and infectious diseases.

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