Yahoo Launches Site For Women To “Shine”
San Francisco – Yahoo on Monday announced a new Web site designed to providing most relevant information to women. The website known as “Shine,” aims to make an exclusive place for the just about 40 million women among the ages of 25 and 54 who already come to Yahoo each month.
“The site will boast original blogs and content from major publishing partners including Conde Nast, Hearst, and Time.”
The website launched at http://shine.yahoo.com features nine categories, Shine’s editors will develop content, pick the best blog posts and use content from other Yahoo sites to deliver a sought-after demographic to advertisers. The site is part of a larger strategic initiative spearheaded by Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.
Shine is Yahoo’s most recent attempt into vertical sites, which consist of well-liked Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance, as well as Sports and Entertainment, and the much less popular Yahoo Tech and Yahoo Green. Shine will offer content certified from publishers such as Conde Nast and Hearst, including fashion, beauty, relationships, healthy living and parenting.
“We are executing on Yahoo’s starting-point strategy by ensuring that women who start their day with Yahoo are offered a more relevant experience,” said Scott Moore, senior vice president and head of Yahoo Media. “Yahoo Shine adds an important piece to our media portfolio, which already includes sites that are number one in the news, sports, finance, and entertainment categories.”
Yahoo’s attempts at presenting unique content have not all panned out, but this site is more of a hybrid. Articles and original blogs will come from a range of sources, including Glamour, Epicurious.com, Style.com, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Women’s Health, and Good Housekeeping.
Eight editors are managing an assortment of sections (such as home, parenting, fashion, culture, and career) and the editor in chief is Brandon Holley, former editor in chief of Jane magazine.
“We are delighted that Yahoo has turned to so many of our magazines and websites for content for its new women’s website,” said Conde Nast vice president of editorial operations Rick Levine.
“By speaking to Yahoo’s huge audience, this partnership will give our great editorial properties a significant growth opportunity.”
Yahoo developed Shine after it studied the market at length and found that women want content that helps them manage their busy lives and ways to maximize the online time they have, Amy Iorio, the vice president of Yahoo Lifestyles and now publisher of Shine, said in a statement.
“Women for instance, want a one-stop for everything so they can maximize their time, and second, they are always doing for other people, so it is nice for them to have someone focused on thinking about their needs,” Iorio said.
Shine will display popular blogs and possesses an in-house news staff to write stories daily.
“Increasing the visibility of our blog content is a key element in driving additional traffic and converting passive readers into loyal fans,” said Hearst magazines digital media vice president Christopher Johnson.
“With more than 130 million visitors each month to Yahoo in the US, Yahoo will become a giant megaphone for us and allow Hearst’s network of bloggers to elevate their voices and be heard by a much larger audience.”
“Women are blogging more than men now,” Iorio noted. “There has been a real explosion in that number over the past six months. We are already hearing from women who are excited about that opportunity to have their posts appearing alongside that professional content.”
The site will contend with iVillage and fashion- and celebrity-news heavy Glam.com, but its content partners and editors will set it apart, Holley said. Shine will differentiate itself by having more of an editorial voice than the other sites and by interacting more with readers, she said.
On a quick glance, Shine looks more aesthetically appealing and less cluttered than the rival sites, despite the fact that Yahoo is not exactly known for simple site design. The site is accessible at http://shine.yahoo.com.