BBC’s Olive Signs Content Deal With Handbag.com
BBC Worldwide’s new upmarket food and travel title Olive has formed a unique partnership with women’s website Handbag.com to provide a range of food content on the women’s website.
The deal will see Olive play a major role in Handbag.com‘s food pages including monthly updated features such as Simple Suppers and Food in Season, as well as a selection of restaurants from Olive’s ongoing Top 100 list.
Handbag.com will also carry Olive branding and the features will be updated monthly to showcase content from the magazine. The website will include a link to Olive’s subscription page where readers can save 25% on a monthly subscription.
Commenting on the deal, Liz Britton, group food marketing manager at BBC Magazines, said: “Handbag.com is a great destination for lifestyle tips and practical advice. Olive‘s recipe and feature content is perfectly suited to the brand and we’re delighted to offer handbag.com the best food content available.”
Handbag.com editor, Debbie Djordjevic, added: “The handbag audience is one of the most receptive when it comes to new ideas – whether they be fashion, beauty or food & drink. Olive recipes are some of the most inspiring around and I know our audience will love them.”
News of the deal comes just days after BBC Worldwide appointed Alix Tidmarsh as its new marketing director amid ongoing speculation that the Corporation’s commercial arm might be floated on the stock market or sold-off completely (see BBC Worldwide Appoints New Marketing Director).
BBC has denied speculation that it had invited any bids for the sales of its commercial arm, BBC Wordwide, despite news that some of the world’s biggest media companies, including Bertelsmann, Time Warner and Disney, are interested in taking control of the division (see Global Media Giants Line Up For BBC Worldwide).
It now looks more likely that BBC Worldwide will be restructured in an attempt to feed cash into the wide-ranging cost-cutting process that will take place in the run up to charter renewal in 2006. The review of division, which is being led by finance director John Smith, is still in its early stages and is not due to report until the end of the year.
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk
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