When health science news site STAT launched in November 2015, it probably didn’t anticipate getting into the film business, but it has. In May, STAT premiered Runnin’, an award-winning short film about a group of friends in Somerville, Massachusetts addicted to opioids. Some of those friends were featured in the film, but many of them – and members of their families – have died in a major health epidemic.

The powerful, 30-minute film debuted in May with two sold-out shows in the Boston area and a sold out show in New York. Now the film is available for viewing on STAT for $9.99. Twenty-five percent of the film’s proceeds will go to The Alex Foster Foundation to help families harmed by opioids.’

‘I hoped that by examining how the drugs took hold in my hometown, I could illustrate how the same thing can and does happen everywhere,’ said multimedia journalist Alex Hogan. ‘Runnin’ includes candid and thoughtful interviews with friends who lost family members and others who abused opioids themselves.’

Executive editor Rick Berke talked to Poynter about the film experiment.

‘This is an important film, but it costs us tens of thousands of dollars to produce,’ Berke said. ‘Our hope is that people will want to support this and future ambitious multimedia projects we are doing at STAT. Many people have emailed us saying, what can they do to support STAT beyond our subscription service, STAT Plus? This is one way.’

Though STAT is produced by Boston Globe Media and is headquartered in Boston, the site has a national reach with bureaus in Washington, New York, Cleveland, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles. STAT was started by John Henry, Boston Globe Media owner and a principal owner of the Red Sox. Much of the content on the health and science site is free, however, some of the content is only available to premium subscribers of STAT Plus. Following a 30-day free trial, STAT Plus is available for $25 a month if billed annually ($299) or $35 a month if billed monthly ($420). Group subscriptions are also available for groups of six or more.

STAT Plus subscribers get exclusive, in-depth coverage about health and science topics include pharma, biotech, health care policy, clinical trials and related news, twice daily, subscriber-only newsletters, access to hundreds of archived articles, “cheat sheets,” exclusive networking events and more. Coverage includes insight into the industry, analysis of breakthroughs and innovations, interviews and profiles of CEOs and other industry leaders and extensive coverage of Congress, the FDA, drug pricing, patent issues and more.

Insider Take:

STAT has been an interesting experiment from Day 1. With the backing of the Boston Globe, the news outlet had the opportunity to focus the new vertical on topics right in the outlet’s backyard – health and science – and then to expand on those topics nationally. In two-and-a-half years, STAT has developed a premium subscription product to provide exclusive content to paying readers, but it has also branched into films, complementing its multimedia journalism.

Though STAT may not make back the money it spent on the film, it produced a powerful, important, award-winning piece on the opioid epidemic. Not only is this quality journalism the site can feel good about, but this is a piece that will garner attention for STAT, attention that could very likely translate into premium subscriptions. This is certainly the kind of journalism I would be willing to support with my subscription fees.