Each week Hearing News Watch provides exclusive coverage to our readers of important events and developments taking place around the wide world of hearing health. This week, though, the breaking news we are reporting on is being made by Hearing Health and Technology Matters (HHTM), our parent blog.
David H. Kirkwood, Editor, Hearing News Watch
TUCSON, AZ–Hearing Health and Technology Matters (HHTM) passed a major milestone yesterday (September 9) when it drew its 1 millionth page view since its launch less than 3-1/2 years ago. In that time, the blog has attracted over 498,000 unique visitors from more than 200 countries, who have paid more than 660,000 visits to HearingHealthMatters.org. What’s more, every year, traffic to HHTM has grown by much more than it did the year before.
When the founding editors of HHTM published their first weekly posts on April 6, 2011, they brought with them a commitment to providing valuable information and insightful perspectives, available nowhere else, to people who shared their belief that “Hearing Health Matters.”
What HHTM’s founders did not have was much experience in blogging, so they basically had to make it up as they went along. They were also short on capital, since their LLC had no outside investors. While that meant having to keep costs low, it provided the important benefit of allowing HHTM to remain totally independent. As a result, the blog is free to focus entirely on how best to serve readers, without worrying about pleasing companies, professional organizations, government agencies, or any of the other powers that be in hearing health.
WHAT WENT RIGHT?
The remarkable rise of HHTM and its reputation as the leading online source of original information on hearing and hearing care has exceeded the founders’ expectations. Yet, in retrospect, it is clear why the blog has been so successful.
The members of the HHTM team collectively possess an unmatched wealth of experience and expertise that enables them to provide readers with lively, informative, unique content each and every week.
Holly Hosford Dunn
Readers know that when they go to HHTM they will find in-depth, peer-review quality posts by Dr. Wayne Staab, whose knowledge of audiology is encyclopedic; insightful economic analyses of the hearing care business that Dr. Holly Hosford-Dunn, with degrees in audiology, hearing science, and economics, is uniquely qualified to deliver; and an eclectic mix of stories from around the world and through the ages in Dr. Robert Traynor’s Hearing International blog.
Wayne Staab
Bob Traynor
Hearing News Watch, written by David Kirkwood, a journalist who has covered the hearing industry since 1990, has become known for breaking important news stories such as Phonak selling hearing aids to Costco, unrest in the ranks of the American Academy of Audiology, the Consumer Electronics Association backing PSAPs for the hearing-impaired, and other stories that readers learned about here.
Gael Hannan
One reason that HHTM’s audience is exploding is that it appeals to the many millions of people who have hearing loss as well as to the professionals who treat the condition. Gael Hannan’s often funny, sometimes poignant, and always practical perspectives on living with hearing loss have made the Better Hearing Consumer must reading for hard-of-hearing people throughout North America.
Another HHTM blog that has become a reader favorite is Hearing Health. There co-editors Dr. Judy Huch and Dr. Bob Martin draw on more than half a century of experience in private practice to offer valuable, easy-to-read information to practitioners and their patients.
Bob Martin
Judy Huch
Jane Madell
The HHTM editorial team also boasts of three audiologists who are renowned experts in areas of critical importance to their target audience. Every week, Dr. Alan Desmond, who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of vestibular disorders; Dr. Jane Madell, a trailblazer in pediatric audiology; and Dr. Marshall Chasin, who focuses on the nexus between music and hearing and hearing loss, address the needs of populations looking for information on topics that other publications tend to overlook.
Marshall Chasin
Alan Desmond
INNOVATION AND GROWTH CONTINUE
Frank Musiek
To ensure that its readership continues to grow, HHTM is constantly introducing new features. Earlier this year, Dr. Frank Musiek, a world-renowned authority on neuroaudiology, joined HHTM. His Pathways blog reports on the latest findings on central auditory processing disorders and related topics.
Very soon, HHTM will announce the appointment of new co-editors for Hearing Views, which publishes lively, provocative opinions and perspectives each week on topics related to hearing. Among the scores of prominent authors who have contributed Hearing Views are, to name a few, Jerry Northern, James Jerger, Ross Roeser, Angela Loavenbruck, Maurice Miller, Brian Taylor, Carole Rogin, Dennis Van Vliet, Katherine Bouton, Ruth Bentler, Dave Myers, Neil DiSarno, Gyl Kasewurm, Terry Ross, Christopher Schweitzer, Barry Freeman, Harvey Abrams, Larry Engelmann, Ian Windmill, Janice Schacter Lintz, and Ted Venema.
Tune in next week, when Hearing News Watch reports on hearing health news in the highest court in the land.
Congrats to David and the whole crew for this valuable platform – keep up the great work and I am looking forward to the next million!!!!