AOL Quietly Creates Female-focused Lifestyle Site; Editor Must 'Get' Renee Zellweger And Amy Sedaris
This story was written by David Kaplan.
AOL (NYSE: TWX) is stealthily creating a new lifestyle website aimed at younger women ... Mediapost reported, citing a job posting on JournalismJobs.com. While the listing for an editor doesn't mention AOL, we've confirmed that the Time Warner unit is indeed working on a site to serve as a counterpoint to the male humor and entertainment site Asylum, which was launched in December. AOL execs have felt satisfied that Asylum has represented a successful challenge to established young male-centric sites like Maxim.com, and so decided to aim a channel at women in the same age group. An AOL rep refused to confirm or deny that the new site is in the works, saying only, "We don't comment on rumors."
The move appears to be at least tangentially related to Yahoo's (NSDQ: YHOO) recently launched women's site, Shine, which is targeting consumers between 25- to 54 years of age and is a more direct challenge to AOL Living, which reaches a similar female demo. Both sites feature a wide range of topics on health, parenting, fashion, and home, among others. The posting on JournalismJobs indicates that the new AOL site will cover those topics, as well as pop culture, food, politics, relationship advice and sex, how-to and humor, adding "We're looking for someone who doesn't need an extra blue book to tactfully explain why Renee Zellweger is endearing yet freaky, and Amy Sedaris is freaky yet brilliant." Assuming they hire an editor by the time the posting expires on May 20, sources say the site should be ready to launch by the fall.
By David Kaplan