eMedia Daily

Will Yahoo “Shine”?

Associated Press
Yahoo Inc. on Monday launched a site for women between ages 25 and 54, calling it a key demographic underserved by current Yahoo properties.

The site, Shine, is aimed largely at giving the struggling Internet company additional opportunities to sell advertising targeted to the key decision-maker in many households. Yahoo said advertisers in consumer-packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals have requested more ways to reach those consumers.

Amy Iorio, vice president for Yahoo Lifestyles, said internal research also shows women are looking for a site to combine various content and communications tools.

“These women were sort of caretakers for everybody in their lives,” she said. “They didn’t feel like there was a place that was looking at the whole them — as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter. They were looking for one place that gave them everything.”

Yahoo is entering a market already served by Glam Media Inc. and iVillage, a unit of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal. It is Yahoo’s first site aimed at a single demographic, although other Yahoo sites like Finance and Sports already draw specific audiences.

With Shine, Yahoo plans to expand its offerings in parenting, sex and love, healthy living, food, career and money, entertainment, fashion, beauty, home life, and astrology.

Will the new Shine bring the target market to Yahoo? It seems to be the answer to the ever-popular Yahoo Sports channel, that offers free fantasy sports leagues, updates and more. Shine’s home page incorporates easy access to your Yahoo Mail, bring traffic to your blog, and view the latest headlines from key topic areas (Fashion + Beauty, Healthy Living, Entertainment, Parenting, Love + Sex, Work + Money, Food, and more).

I think the key element to this is the conversational element - the “Chatter” section that highlights blogs from Shine members. To get into gender stereotypes, men like to compete - thus are drawn to the fantasy sports leagues. Women like to share information and communicate - so maybe “Chatter” is jst what they need. We’ll see.