Sunnyvale, California-based Web pioneer Yahoo has launched a new specialty Web site for women between  ages 25 and 54 focusing on their everyday lives, the company announced Monday. Calling the target group of women an underserved demographic within its current lineup of properties, Yahoo has moved to provide new opportunities to sell targeted online advertising to the increasing number of women in this age group who are the primary decision-maker in many households. Advertisers have expressed the desire to use Yahoo to more easily reach women within the demographic the new Web site, which is called Shine, has been created to serve, Yahoo said. A Single Lifestyle Destination, Shine Yahoo hopes Shine will become a Web starting point for women while also "providing Yahoo advertisers with a  single lifestyles destination to reach this coveted demographic," Yahoo said in a release issued Monday. Yahoo said that it had advertisers in pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods and retail categories particularly in mind for Shine, an online advertising group which is expected to see combined spending top $1.8 billion during 2008 according to research from TNS Media Intelligence. Yahoo Shine has been launched with content in the following nine main focal areas relating to women :  | Fashion and beauty | | Parenting | | | Food | | Home | | | Healthy living | | Entertainment and culture | | | Work and money | | Love and relationships | | | Astrology | | | Yahoo senior vice president and head of its Santa Monica, California-based media group Scott Moore sees Shine combining these areas to offer women a new entry point to the Web. "We're executing on Yahoo's starting point strategy by ensuring that women who start their day with Yahoo are offered a more relevant experience," Moore said in the Monday release. "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," added Moore. Independent Editorial Staff Publishing veteran Brandon Holley has been chosen to head the editorial staff for Shine, where she will oversee a group of experienced editors who have worked for such publications as Lucky and BluePrint magazines and  Thee Wall Street Journal's Career Journal. Shine editors will offer original stories daily and choose from among blog posts written by users of the new site, which will also be shown on the main page of the Shine site, Yahoo said. Writing on Yahoo's Yodel Anecdotal blog, Holley, who has worked previously at Elle Girl and Jane magazines, shared her vision for Shine. "We wanted to create a smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info, and connect with each other and the world around them," she wrote, and went on to explain what not to expect on the new Yahoo Shine site: "Advice on how to please your man and diets that urge you to “lose 10 pound fast!" "You can count on us to bring attitude and personality, and find humor in almost every topic we cover, whether it's a post on men who wear skinny jeans, how you can get back into your skinny jeans, or whether you'll be taken seriously if you wear jeans to work," Holley said. "Yahoo Shine speaks to you as a friend, telling you the secrets and tips to simplify your life," added Holley in a statement. Shine Joins Other Established Sites Catering to Women Yahoo Shine will compete with several established sites catering to women, such as iVillage, a property of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, Glam Media Inc., and AOL Living and Everyday Health, some of the leading women-oriented sites according to Web traffic analysis firm comScore, and will also compete against a group of small rivals including Sugar Inc.'s celebrity news site PopSugar and entrepreneurs site BlogHer. Earlier this month saw the launch of Wowowow.com, a Web site aimed at the over-40 upscale women demographic, which will add to Shine's competition. Users of the new Shine site will be able to access their Yahoo email and conduct searches using Yahoo, helping fill a need for more combined content and features Yahoo Lifestyles vice president Amy Iorio recently spoke about in a New York Times report, revealing that internal research showed a void Shine could help fill. "These women were sort of caretakers for everybody in their lives. They didn't feel like there was a place that was looking at the whole them - as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter. They were looking for one place that gave them everything," Iorio said. "This is really a key audience for Yahoo. We've been calling them 'chief household officers' internally," Iorio added. Large Array of Launch Partners Yahoo has formed partnership agreements with a number of large publishers for the launch of Shine, including the following firms and their publications from which content will be collected and syndicated: | | Conde Nast Publications and CondeNet with Glamour, Self, Bon Appetit, Lucky, Allure, Domino, Cookie, Style.com, and Epicurious.com | | | Hearst Corporation with Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Real Age, House Beautiful, Daily Green, and Country Living | | | Rodale, Inc. with Prevention, Women's Health, Men's Health, and Best Life | | | Time, Inc. with InStyle | | | Eating Well Media with Eating Well | Among the partners is Hearst Corporation, who's Christopher Johnson serves as vice president of content and business development at its Hearst Magazines Digital Media division. Johnson sees the large audience Yahoo  attracts as key to the success of Shine. "Yahoo is an ideal partner for us because they are pioneering a unique way to present content online," Johnson said. "With more than 130 million visitors each month to Yahoo in the U.S., 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. Increasing the visibility of our blog content is a key element in driving additional traffic and converting passive readers into loyal fans," added Johnson. Yahoo Takes a New "Shine" To Women With Specialty Site Rick Levine, Conde Nast Publications vice president of editorial operations, sees Shine as a prime opportunity for advertisers. "We're delighted that Yahoo has turned to so many of our magazines and websites for content for its new women's website. By speaking to Yahoo!'s huge audience, this partnership will give our great editorial properties a significant growth opportunity," said Levine. Shine will be Yahoo's first site aimed solely at one demographic, although some of its Web properties cater to specific interests such as financial and sports information, general news, and technology. Yahoo has been working on Shine for some six months according to Moore in a recent Paid Content article, and plans to keep its existing health information site online to serve women and men of other age demographics. Shine looks to tap into an online audience of women that outnumbers men according to research firm EMarketer Inc., which found that some 77.8 million men aged 18 and older use the Internet in the United States, more than 3 million fewer than the 81 million women shown in the research data. ComScore data shows that the Web destinations Shine will be competing against are already attracting large audiences. Almost 74 million people viewed a site aimed specifically at women during February, a sizable 43 percent increase over the same month in 2007, comScore data showed - a rate rapidly outpacing the Web's overall growth rate of 5 percent during the same period. Related Links:
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10:06 pm on Mar. 31, 2008 (utc 0)