Feature: Publishers Bring Women’s Sites Into Focus
Not so many months ago dedicated women’s portals were hot property on the internet. A flurry of online women-focussed activity occurred in the space of a few months with offerings from Associated New Media (CharlotteStreet.com), Hollinger and Boots, (handbag.com), IPC (beme.com) and Freeserve (icircle.co.uk).
They all had one thing in mind: to tap into the pockets of women entering the online environment. As the potential of e-commerce began to be understood, businesses and publishers alike wanted to make sure they grabbed the attention of the gender with the greatest proclivity towards shopping. Their answer was to produce generic dedicated portals of female-oriented content; shopping malls which guided “everywoman” around the world wide web.
CharlotteStreet went for the community spirit, claiming to be the place “where women meet on the web” and inviting them to “take a stroll” through predictable features on health and beauty, relationships and babies. They aimed for the 29-45 year-old woman and used content from sister national, the Daily Mail. IPC’s beme.com led women from ages 8-80 through colour-co-ordinated, mood-related channels focussing on similar topics. And handbag.com gave users plenty of opportunity to open up its namesake and push online shopping.
But now it seems the bubble has burst and a reassessment is due. As Natmags prepares to launch its latest offering into the arena (see Launches Brief) the very idea of generic portals for women is feeling worn-out, destined to end up on the heap of failed internet ideas which are beginning to drift out as the initial wave of optimism which the new medium heralded dregs up its first losers. This week the Guardian reported that only 7% of women online use women-focussed portals and two of the first women’s portals are undergoing rebranding amid rumours of poor performance.
This week CharlotteStreet’s parent company Associated New Media announced that it had replaced its editor and is set to make changes to the site. Its plan is to “focus more on its core audience” according to head of marketing, Christine Woodman. Maria Trkulja has taken the place of Nicola Davenport who has now left the company.
Freeserve’s icircle.co.uk has also announced it is to unveil a new look. A spokesperson for the group said that its launch last Christmas pushed its content online and its second stage of development will include a rebranding to align it with Freeserve’s image and logo and to define its audience more thoroughly.
As the web evolves as a medium, publishers are coming to term with its specific qualities. Targeting is key to the recent change of heart surrounding the women’s market. In the race to get their content online, many publishers forgot the rules of print media and hid their well-maintained and highly-targeted brands online in amongst the broad category of “women’s stuff”. The idea that a magazine targeting “all women” would never get off the ground in print didn’t seem to apply to the online world where anything goes.
As Christine Woodman said: “Publishers are still finding their feet. It is almost a year on from our [CharlotteStreet] launch and we are looking carefully at what we are doing and trying to focus on a more specific audience.”
So will the launch of Natmags uk.women.com fall into the same trap as its competitors? In the US market its sister site, women.com, is the second most visited women’s portal. But can it gain the same attention in the UK? At first glance its proposal seems similar to that of its rivals, combining “the strengths of ten of the best magazine brands in the UK, including Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, with the expertise of women.com, a top 50 internet site.”
Two more different readers that those of Cosmopolitan (glamourous and gutsy…part of the post-feminist generation) and Good Housekeeping (upholds traditional family values) seem improbable bedmates but the US version of this site has retained the specificity of these brands while also channeling its readers through general “women’s” content.
Specificity and personalisation are the key issues in the race to corner the women’s online market. Concierge sit side by side but attract very different audiences. On top of this the portal uses the internet to its advantage, providing interactivity at every level. The reader is not frightened away with pages of text but allowed to interact, using the medium to its fullest.
Feature: Clare Goff/Anna Wise