NYTCo-owned guide site About.com is formalizing the use of celebrities among its 800 “expert authors” who dispense advice on everything from acne to zoology. Over the past few months, About has offered a space to celebs like country music star Faith Hill, the New York Knicks’ point guard Nate Robinson, and Oscar-winning actress and author Marlee Matlin. I spoke with Cella Irvine, The About Group’s CEO and president, about how using celebs fits into her strategy to promote the site and bring in new advertisers.

Until the ad recession began gathering steam in early 2008, the About Group had been riding fairly high, mostly on the strength of its acquisitions. In Q1, the About Group’s revs slipped 4.7 percent to $26.8 million, which is still fairly decent considering the much larger declines at other media companies. It needs to be seen as doing something dramatic to help maintain its high traffic of 40 million monthly uniques. And so, this month, it will cue celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck as a guest editor. He will be followed by other celebs on a bi-monthly basis.

More after the jump, including why About picked Puck, whose heyday as a celebrity chef was at least a decade ago.

The use of celebrity guest editors has been a popular way of getting some attention. For example, last week Newsweek’s not only Stephen Colbert on the cover, it named him its first “guest editor.” It’s doubtful that newsstand sales or subscriptions spiked highly, but the magazine did get some free publicity a few weeks after unveiling its redesign. About won’t be paying its celeb guest editors. Instead, it will give personalities who are probably in need of a image boost—Puck has been eclipsed by food stars like Bobby Flay and Mario Battali, but he is a known quantity. He’s got a line of frozen pizzas to plug, so About can ride the wave of any further attention Puck gets for that as well, making it an easy win-win. The cook behind Beverly Hills hot spot Spago will be featured on About’s American Food channel, where Puck will also promote his new frozen pizza line along with original recipes. “Our guides are all vetted and credentialed, but most of them don’t have name recognition” Irvine said. “We certainly believe that bringing in well-known experts can add more buzz to the site and we plan to feature the celebrity guests in our advertising.”

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