The first major web venture from the National Magazine Company has been put “on hold” after the dotcom slump put the frighteners on the publishers. A UK version of US site Women.com was said to be in the planning stages in June last year, and although a launch date was not set, Natmag’s deputy managing director, Duncan Edwards described the project as “a sure-fire winner”. The six months which followed have now been renamed “an investigative period”, and, having witnessed consumer sites dropping like flies, the investigation has concluded that now is not the time to launch.
Natmags is one of few major consumer magazine publishers in the UK not to have a major web presence. Emap has, among others, New Woman Online, IPC lists NME.com among its online versions and Future has recently relaunched and revamped its online portal. So far Natmags has only ventured as far as micro-sites for each of its print titles and a corporate website, www.natmags.co.uk. A spokesperson for the company said that these would continue, but that there were no other plans for web developments at present. “We’d rather concentrate on print, or ‘old’ media.” they said.
The company insists that the project has not been scrapped altogether, however, and it could be that if recently launched iVillage.co.uk and recently relaunched Femail.co.uk manage to buck the downward trend in consumer dotcoms, Natmags will be persuaded to take the plunge after all.
