A MINI-REVOLUTION is under way in a little-known corner of the worldwide web. Launched this month, Searchmedica.co.uk is a doctor’s internet search engine, an online spin-off from Pulse, the weekly paper for GPs.

Created with the help of a panel of medical experts, Search Medica aims to give doctors better information — providing more relevant, authoritative and reliable help than they could obtain from search engines such as Google or Yahoo.

It is also an example of the measures that trade publishers are having to take to meet the challenge of the internet. They used to earn a decent living from advertising targeted at professionals; but the growth of online job sites and pay-per-click advertising has cut a swathe through that business, savaging the revenues of many magazines.

Unsurprisingly, the technology sector was the first and worst hit, but the impact of the internet is leaving few areas untouched.

David Levin, chief executive of United Business Media, Pulse’s owner, has seen the damage at first hand. In CMP Technology, his biggest business, UBM owns many well-known IT titles, including the American market leader, Information Week.

Having already lost its classified advertising to job sites such as Dice.com, Information Week has more recently been hit by advertisers abandoning print altogether, in preference for the sales leads generated by Google-style search advertising.

“Print is great for building brand and [market] position,” said Levin, “but it’s not so good for generating leads.”

Pulse is part of UBM’s substantial healthcare publishing business, CMP Medica. Levin believes it makes sense to try to create a dedicated search engine for medical professionals. He said: “There’s a great need for information. No doctor can know it all.”

Search Medica’s listings are culled, not from the entirety of the worldwide web, but from 1,200 more specialist sites, including those beyond the reach of the “crawlers” used by Google and its rivals.

Levin said the intention was to eliminate the unnecessary “noise” in Google’s listings, such as potentially unreliable information from patient lobby groups or from Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia. Information is presented in such a way as to give doctors quick access to clinical evidence, treatment guidelines and information for patients.

Search Medica has received “phenomenal” feedback from the doctors who have used it, Levin said. It has also attracted the first of what UBM hopes will be many advertisers: Astra Zeneca, maker of the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor.

This is only one of many investments UBM is making to transform its business for the digital age. Unlike better-known media companies such as ITV, Trinity Mirror and Emap, UBM is one of a few in a troubled sector to have a rising share price. At 690p on Friday, the shares are up 7.5% this year.

Media firms used to be among the most glamorous on the stock market, borne aloft on the increase in advertising that accompanies economic growth.