FDAnews is the premier provider of domestic and international regulatory, legislative and business news and information for executives in industries regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

There are numerous "80/20 rules" that business people quote to explain the relationship between effort and results. One 80/20 rule says that 80 percent of your sales are derived from 20 percent of your customers. Another says that 80 percent of your revenue is derived from 20 percent of your products.

In a brand and audience focusing exercise, FDAnews president Cynthia Carter launched FDAnews.com when she recognized, immediately and intuitively, that the FDA information at her new employer's publishing company was a small portion—perhaps 20 percent of the entire content—but accounted for 80 percent of revenues.

That was in 2000. Today, FDAnews has in excess of 75,000 unique names in its marketing file. Each of these is a subscriber to at least one of seven free email newsletters and is worth an average of $65. In the past six years, the publishing company has increased revenues four-fold, aggregating 80 percent of its new business from online marketing.