The current model of medical publishing goes something like this: high-priced journals, ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars a year, that attract few subscribers and even fewer advertisers.

Now the London-based medical- and scientific-publishing empire of Reed Elsevier is trying something new. This past weekend the company launched a Web portal, OncologySTAT, that offers doctors free access to more than 100 of its cancer-related journals, daily medical and regulatory news summaries, and limited access to other non-Elsevier journals and news sources when they register.

The company hopes to attract 150,000 doctors and other health-care professionals within the next year as well as advertisers and drug companies. Elsevier hopes to make money by selling ad space next to the content and generating lists of professionals for various advertisers.

It is unclear whether the new venture, which was described in today’s New York Times, will pay off. Many medical professionals already have free journal access through their institutions, and OncologySTAT will undoubtedly face competition from free medical-news sites like Medscape, the National Cancer Institute, and PubMed. —Bijal P. Trivedi