Do We Need Another Celebrity News Site? iVillage Thinks So, But It’s ‘Just For Women’

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Do We Need Another Celebrity News Site? iVillage Thinks So, But It’s ‘Just For Women’

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After drumming up attention for its upcoming website overhaul, iVillage wants everyone to know it’s also created a new celebrity news site as part of the revamp. With celeb news one of the few major growth areas for online ad dollars, it’s understandable that iVillage would be tempted to jump into the mix. Since the NBCU-owned women’s site isn’t going to present much competition to the likes of TMZ or Perez Hilton, it is instead taking aim at Microsoft’s Wonderwall, Yahoo’s OMG and AOL’s PopEater. For one thing, the “just for women” concept of a celeb news channel isn’t much of a differentiator; that’s about every other celeb site on the Web.

Aside from that, the main reason for iVillage’s entertainment push is to satisfy one elusive goal: to create cross-promotional benefits by tying NBCU’s broadcast and cable shows to the site. It will get some help on the news side from a range of partners, including the AP, syndicated TV show Access Hollywood, Slate women’s site DoubleX and NBCU sibling TelevisionWithoutPity. Release

—WWD: On the other end of sites focusing on celebrities, there are sites being started by stars… Supermodel-turned-talk show host Tyra Banks has created a web-only mag called Tyra: Beauty Inside & Out, which is an offshoot from her best selling book of the same name. Like NBCU’s iVillage effort, Tyra’s mag will also serve to promote her TV shows, America’s Next Top Model and The Tyra Show, as well as her photo shoots.

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David Kaplan

@davidaKaplan Sep 8, 2009 11:26 AM ET

Posted In: Entertainment, Media & Publishing, Women-Centric Content, Companies, NBC Universal, iVillage

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KH

iVillage has had a celebrity site for years. This is not new as you make it seem in the lede. Entertainment is just the first section to be redesigned for the site.

JillK

Lauren Zalaznick, the president of NBCU Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks said that iVillage,com is doing well and comScore stats show Julyâs monthly uniques up 23 percent to 21.4 million at iVillage.com. Actually—comScore shows iVillage.com site is down to only 4.1 million in June. The rest is a network of sites like BlogHer that are 21.4 million. The owned properties have declined since NBCU acquired iVillage.

Good example of an old media NYT reporter interviewing old media Lauren Zalaznick who knows little about the internet or celeb sites. Like Fox/MySpace, Jeff Zucker will need to fire the entire iVillage team, and get real internet people like Jon Miller and Owen to have a chance. Entertainment online is owned by Fox, Yahoo and AOL, what chance does NBC have with iVillage? Agree that it makes little sense.