Penton Closes Exchange Portion of Healthwell.com

BOULDER, Colo.--New Hope Natural Media, based here, laid off 30 employees yesterday as it discontinued the development of the "exchange" portion of its Healthwell Exchange Web site. Penton Media, owner of New Hope, noted in its 4Q and FY00 report that it was making changes to several Internet operations and was eliminating 50 staff positions between the Boulder, Salt Lake City and Cleveland locations.

According to Mary Abood, vice president of corporate communications for Penton, the company remains committed to the natural products sector, but found the investment needs for the exchange part of the site prohibitively high. She added that a few of the staff from the exchange project have moved back over to the Healthwell site, which will remain an active information-based area. Kim Paulsen, president of the Healthwell sector, will remain with the company, Abood said.

Healthwell.com announced plans for its B2B Exchange site in 1999, and planned to go live by June 2000. At the time, New Hope noted that the site would feature a closed loop system to connect consumers with retailers, distributors, manufacturers and suppliers. However, the exchange component never materialized.

Abood noted that Penton remains "100 percent committed to the natural products sector" and is planning to make an announcement in the "very near future" about a new component of its natural products division dealing with research information services.

For more information about Penton Media, visit www.penton.com; for news on Healthwell, visit www.exchange.healthwell.com.