For all of you interested in health news, consider this a holiday present.
WUSF Public Media recently acquired Health News Florida, an award-winning website focused on explaining how health policy affects you and your family.
As of today, Health News Florida has a beautiful new website, with more health stories from NPR, and great audio and video as well.
Health News Florida also is producing a weekly radio feature that’s aired every Thursday on WUSF 89.7 and on public radio stations throughout the state of Florida.
“We’ve got the same great stories, but now there's a lot more for our followers,” said Carol Gentry, founder and editor of Health News Florida.
“We have audio, photos, videos that we’re producing, and we have access to great health reporting from NPR reporters such as Julie Rovner,” Gentry said.
“The launch of this combined health news initiative is such a significant milestone for our station,” said WUSF Public Media General Manager JoAnn Urofsky. “Health News Florida: Journalism for a Healthy State from WUSF will continue to position us as a leader across the state when it comes to reporting on healthcare.”
It’s part of our effort to cover the issues more important to our audience. We’ve launched special projects around education and the environment, and the new Health News Florida website just adds to that.
The website is designed by NPR Digital, with help from WUSF webmaster Willow Wright. Lottie Watts of Health News Florida also did a lot of the leg work getting this site set up.
Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication, Health News Florida is dedicated to coverage of health issues in our state.
Below is the press release* from WUSF Public Media:
WUSF Public Media Launches Refreshed Health News Initiative
TAMPA, Fla. (December 10, 2012) – WUSF Public Media announced today the launch of Health News Florida: Journalism for a Healthy State from WUSF. The refreshed health news initiative is the combined effort of WUSF’s Healthy State Collaborative and the “original” Health News Florida, an online, non-profit daily news service which WUSF acquired in September. The multimedia experience will provide daily coverage of health issues that affect the citizens of Florida through radio, video, website content and strategic partnerships with news organizations across the state.
“The launch of this combined health news initiative is such a significant milestone for our station,” said WUSF Public Media General Manager JoAnn Urofsky. “Health News Florida: Journalism for a Healthy State from WUSF will continue to position us as a leader across the state when it comes to reporting on healthcare.”
The health news initiative will provide news coverage of state issues, including health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and the cost and quality of health care. The initiative will offer original content by WUSF staff and correspondents, as well as highlight and explain important coverage from other publications throughout the state.
“The intent of Health News Florida: Journalism for a Health State from WUSF is not to duplicate what other publications are covering,” said Carol Gentry, Editor, Health News Florida. “In order to ensure the public has a clear understanding of healthcare issues in Florida, our original content will pay special attention to topics that are not being covered well across the state. And through our partnerships with other news organizations, we aggregate relevant content from that will provide accessible health news to the public in one location.”
WUSF Public Media has spent the past couple of months integrating archives from its Healthy State Collaborative project with those of Health News Florida. The new website for the initiative can be found at www.healthnewsflorida.org.
About WUSF Public Media
WUSF Public Media is a comprehensive media organization that provides media services to the community and businesses through public broadcasting and multi-media production services. Licensed to the University of South Florida, WUSF Public Media serves the public interest through programming, educational outreach and community partnerships. For more information, visit www.wusf.org.
*Correction: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect link. The link has been fixed.
