Led by former Jane editor in chief Brandon Holley, Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) launched its "Shine" Web site today, targeting the female demo online.
When asked about the difference between Jane and Shine, Holley said, "It's not Jane -- that was specific and too niche-exist. But voice is really important to me." She said focus groups of women said they felt mainstream media was too humorless and too often talked down to them."
The overall goal of the new Web site is to be number one in unique visitors online among women. With Yahoo's built-in audience, they have a real shot at doing this quickly, providing huge competition over iVillage and Glam.
According to their press release, the nine categories included in the new site will be:
- Fashion & Beauty
- Parenting
- Food
- At Home
- Healthy Living
- Entertainment & Culture
- Work & Money
- Astrology
- Love and Relationships
Holley promises Shine will be more edgy than other women's sites out there, which may be good or bad, depending on the women they're reaching out to and the advertisers they're courting.
Along with consolidating some of their current departments under the new Web site, Yahoo is also generating content through syndication, licensing and revenue sharing deals with a number of companies, guaranteeing a steady flow of new content.
What will be instructive to watch is if a mass site will appeal to women, as Yahoo is self consciously leaving the more niche strategy and attempting the mass market strategy.
While that's valuable to advertisers and marketers, who are desperate to find large audiences to place their ads against, it remains to be seen if women, or anyone, wants to do the one-stop-shop thing anymore on a consistent basis.
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