NORWALK, CT. June 6, 2003 -- HealthScoutNews, an internationally syndicated daily consumer health news service, is changing its name to HealthDay, its parent company announced today.

"HealthDay is a very good description of what we do," said editor-in-chief Barry Hoffman. "For almost five years -- two of them as an independent news service -- HealthDay has given its clients important stories about the latest developments in health and medicine that the lay person can understand and use."

The name change becomes official June 9. HealthDay is a division of ScoutNews, LLC, a Norwalk, Conn.-based news and information company.

"We offer this news every day, and our new name -- HealthDay -- will remind us -- as well as our clients and readers -- how important the credibility and timeliness of consumer health news is," Hoffman concluded.

Since May 2001, HealthDay has grown to become one of the top consumer health news services available to a diverse client base and has a broad and influential user list that includes important media companies. The New York Times Syndicate sells HealthDay's news service to more than 40 newspapers and broadcasting stations. The Associated Press is HealthDay's digital partner. HealthDay stories are available daily in Spanish, and Japan's Nikkei service carries HealthDay stories translated into Japanese.

The Gannett Co., CoxNet (the online newspaper sites for Cox newspapers), ABCNews.com, USAToday.com, and Forbes.com offer HealthDay's full schedule of stories. The news service's ever-growing client list also includes more than 150 health-related sites or companies represented by firms such as Consumer Health Interactive, AtMedica, MedSeek, Medizine, Choice Media and HealthAtoZ.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's widely-used search engine, Healthfinder, uses HealthDay news exclusively, and major Internet portals using HealthDay news include Yahoo!, Earthlink, iWon and Bell South.

HealthDay's reporters and editors produce 15-20 articles a day. Other HealthDay products include 13 weekly health-specific newsletters, special packages of stories covering specific topics in depth, monthly reports concentrating on research into diseases and conditions, and an active 12-month archive of more than 4,500 medical/health articles.

"Changing the HealthScoutNews name to HealthDay is an acknowledgement that we have established the company for a period of accelerated growth," said George Giokas, chairman of ScoutNews, LLC.

Company History

ScoutNews, LLC is a privately held information company, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn. It was formed in May 2001, when the HealthScout News Service was acquired from RxRemedy Inc., a medical and health information company in Westport, Conn.

At the same time, ScoutNews, LLC was permitted to use the name HealthScoutNews. Those permissions are expiring, and the company's management decided to change the news service's name to HealthDay to better reflect the wide range of health information offered its clients.