Vital Signs: Will This Be Your Last Issue of AnswerStat?



By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan

To make sure you continue to receive AnswerStat magazine, we need your confirmation.

Here’s Why: AnswerStat magazine is an advertiser-supported magazine. That means the companies that advertise in AnswerStat make it possible for you to receive it. Please join us in thanking our loyal sponsors and regular advertisers for making AnswerStat possible, both in print and online:

  • 1Call,a division of Amtelco
  • Ambs Call Center
  • Carenet Healthcare Services
  • Echo, A Healthstream Company
  • LVM Systems
  • Triage Logic

However, over the past few years, the overall advertising support for AnswerStat has dwindled. Whether connected or not, this started with uncertainty over the Affordable Care Act. In fact, our advertising revenue is now half of what it was when Obamacare was first discussed. That has made it challenging to produce this magazine.

This past year was especially rough. I worked on AnswerStat without being paid, and for half the issues I had to borrow money to pay our vendors. I’m not looking for sympathy; I made these choices because I believe in the future of this magazine. I am convinced that healthcare call centers play a key role in providing quality, affordable healthcare.

Plus, I know what AnswerStat means to you, our readers. Every issue, I hear just how much you appreciate AnswerStat magazine.

Yet changes must be made. Unfortunately, we still don’t know what those changes will be; it will take another month or so before we know for sure.

Scenario 1: Our hope is we will have enough advertiser support to allow us to merely scale back the number of pages in each issue and continue to mail a printed copy to readers who have requested it. But we need your confirmation to make sure this happens.

Scenario 2: If it’s not feasible to continue to print and mail the magazine, we will email it to every subscriber we can, providing we have your email address. In too many cases we do not. That’s why it’s essential for you to confirm your interest in receiving AnswerStat.

Other Options: We’ve discussed other ideas as well. They all hinge on you confirming your interest in receiving AnswerStat magazine by mail or email.

What Else Can You Do?

  • Thank our advertisers. Seriously. Take a moment to email or call them with your appreciation; let them feel the love. Even better, buy something from them!
  • If you know organizations that should be advertising in AnswerStat, encourage them to consider it. All serious vendors in the industry should be in the only print magazine dedicated to covering healthcare contact centers and telehealth.

So, to make sure you receive the February/March issue of AnswerStat, please confirm your subscription today. Thank you!

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of AnswerStat. He’s a passionate wordsmith whose goal is to change the world one word at a time.

[From the Dec 2014/Jan 2015 issue of AnswerStat magazine]

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