Sites by older women for older women are the thing
By Heidi Dawley May 28, 2008
It's becoming quite the thing, and we know them well enough to know them by their first names, Joni, Rosie, Tina, Liz, Bonnie, Lily, Candice.
These are women who made it, some back when making it still meant making it in a man's world, and now they're making it again, or setting out to, but this time not in magazines or books or on TV, their old platforms, but on the internet.
They're creating sites for women much like themselves.
Most famously there's the much-written-about wowowow.com, a site started recently by Joni Evans, former president of Simon & Schuster, Leslie Stahl, the "60 Minutes" correspondent, and Liz Smith, the longtime gossip columnist, along with Mary Wells of what was once Wells Rich Greene, a top New York ad agency, and a handful of other friends.
But there's also Tina Brown, the New Yorker editor who left Conde Nast to start the ill-fated Talk magazine, then took up column writing. She's now reportedly working on launching a news aggregator site with backing from Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp.
And no sooner was Bonnie Fuller out as top editor at American Media and the long-struggling Star than word began leaking that she too was turning to the web with plans to launch a women’s networking site.
And then there's Rosie O'Donnell, old media's former everything--TV talk show host, editor of Rosie magazine under what was once Gruner + Jahr, and most recently the lippy, controversial co-host of ABC's "The View," until clashing one too many times with whomever.
O'Donnell's actually an old web hand, having started her site years ago as a place to vent.
That so many creative women from old media would be turning to the internet to create new ventures is not all that surprising. What is surprising is that so many seem to be doing it now.
Why not two years ago, or for that matter five?
Partly it's how the internet itself has changed, morphing from a one-way medium--think male here--to a two-way conversational medium, a place for dialogue.
“We all had very busy careers in traditional media. But all of us in our individual ways started to be fascinated by what was on the web,” says Evans, who is CEO of wowowow.com, which launched in March.
"Our collective strength is bubbling up, and here comes this fantastic internet to unite voices."
But also at work is the sense that the generation of Evans, Noonan and Smith is underserved by the internet, which is still perceived as a young medium even while its biggest user base is boomers.
That's confirmed by research.
”We have seen that a lot of the older folks don’t feel like they are being served by the content,” says David Cooperstein, chief marketing officer for Burst Media, the online ad network. In a recent study on perceptions of the internet, it came out that three-quarters of folks 18-34 believe the internet is focused on them, compared to just one-third of folks 45 and over.
“I think that content providers are getting the sense that this is where their audience is shifting,” says Cooperstein. "Not just the young are online."
Wowowow.com and other women's sites are being launched by older women to reach other women who have grown beyond the 18-34 demographic and feel there's little on the web for them.
“Everything we looked at seemed to be earmarked for the very young or was political. We, being old-fashioned content gals, we wanted something different,” Evans says.
“We wanted to find a place for women over 40 to go, a safe haven, a more thoughtful place to hear from our own community that has been so ignored by media for so long,” she says. "It is more than just a place to read content – on the internet women can converse. “
Too, there' s a sense of adventure to it all, driven by the conversation with readers, and that has a way of shaking loose a lot of old ideas and sparking new ones.
“Every day the experience is hearing this audience tell us something new,” says Evans. They're deciphering what the audience wants as they go. “It is a learning experience.”
The founders and their dozen or so equally famous friends produce the content.
“The women on the site have built out their own home pages, and in doing so have found that this is an opportunity to do more individually. They can do their own interactions, polling, telling of opening in a play,” says Evans.
“What we thought might be a small conversation has room to be a very large home to go to for this community. It is a very active community.”
***
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended May 18, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Microsoft and AOL Media Network for the ninth straight week.
Nextag regained the No. 1 advertiser spot with 6.1 million impressions, knocking Experian Group Limited down to No. 2 at 5.2 million. With 25.3 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MySpace at 4.9 million.
Sessions per person per week were down one from the previous week to 16, and domains visited per person were up one to 40. PC time per person was flat compared with the previous week, at 17 hours and 27 minutes.
Top 25 parent companies Through May 18
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
92,686
65.4
0:35:23
2
Microsoft
87,144
61.5
0:46:27
3
Yahoo!
78,734
55.6
1:05:24
4
Time Warner
66,893
47.2
1:19:07
5
News Corp. Online
43,949
31.0
0:43:54
6
eBay
34,909
24.6
0:43:28
7
InterActiveCorp
29,733
21.0
0:12:17
8
Wikimedia Foundation
25,277
17.8
0:09:12
9
Apple Computer
24,076
17.0
0:31:12
10
Amazon
23,752
16.8
0:15:16
11
Landmark Communications
23,276
16.4
0:12:35
12
Walt Disney Internet Group
21,265
15.0
0:28:56
13
New York Times Company
20,592
14.5
0:09:36
14
AT&T Inc.
18,190
12.8
0:20:34
15
RealNetworks, Inc.
15,049
10.6
0:16:13
16
Verizon Communications
13,587
9.6
0:18:14
17
CNET Networks
13,510
9.5
0:05:51
18
CraigsList
13,144
9.3
0:39:59
19
E.W. Scripps Company
12,845
9.1
0:06:54
20
Comcast Corp.
12,718
9.0
0:35:04
21
Bank of America
12,692
9.0
0:23:48
22
United Online
12,583
8.9
0:27:49
23
Facebook
12,058
8.5
0:40:40
24
CBS Corporation
11,119
7.9
0:14:23
25
U.S. Dept. of the Treasury (USDT)
11,010
7.8
0:10:10
Source: Nielsen Online
Top 25 brands Through May 18
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
86,562
61.1
0:25:52
2
Yahoo!
77,460
54.7
1:06:04
3
MSN/Windows Live
63,084
44.5
0:46:56
4
Microsoft
58,040
41.0
0:18:26
5
AOL Media Network
53,035
37.4
1:26:56
6
Fox Interactive Media
38,713
27.3
0:46:16
7
YouTube
33,980
24.0
0:24:58
8
eBay
29,252
20.6
0:45:52
9
Wikipedia
25,094
17.7
0:09:09
10
Apple
24,076
17.0
0:31:12
11
Weather Channel
20,925
14.8
0:13:19
12
Amazon
19,461
13.7
0:15:09
13
Blogger
18,136
12.8
0:06:35
14
Ask Search Network
16,497
11.6
0:10:44
15
CNN Digital Network
15,643
11.0
0:20:11
16
Real Network
15,049
10.6
0:16:13
17
About.com
14,448
10.2
0:03:02
18
AT&T
13,227
9.3
0:24:14
19
Craigslist
13,144
9.3
0:39:59
20
Bank of America
12,167
8.6
0:24:17
21
Facebook
12,058
8.5
0:40:40
22
Comcast
9,910
7.0
0:43:35
23
U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
9,721
6.9
0:09:22
24
Chase
8,814
6.2
0:16:21
25
Target
8,484
6.0
0:05:55
Source: Nielsen Online
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads)
Through May 18
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
NexTag, Inc.
6,133,350
2
Experian Group Limited
5,155,503
3
Vonage Holdings Corp
2,286,383
4
Netflix, Inc.
1,779,222
5
Verizon Communications, Inc.
1,244,542
6
Scottrade, Inc.
1,183,086
7
AT&T Corp.
1,132,244
8
Johnson & Johnson
978,096
9
Altria Group Inc.
970,415
10
Trade-In-Value.com
957,317
11
XM Satellite Radio, Inc.
892,706
12
Edmunds.com, Inc.
841,966
13
CoolSavings, Inc.
711,407
14
Deutsche Telekom AG
659,957
15
Southwest Airlines Co.
623,418
16
InterActiveCorp
598,148
17
Freeze.com
595,097
18
General Motors Corporation
581,760
19
College-Finder.net
576,709
20
United Online, Inc.
539,513
21
Privacy Matters
512,281
22
Ford Motor Company
482,828
23
Unclassified Local Advertiser
460,842
24
Toyota Motor Corporation
445,509
25
eBay, Inc.
429,404
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads)
Through May 18
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Yahoo!
25,251,188
2
MySpace
4,867,324
3
MSN
3,431,696
4
MSNBC
1,206,110
5
AOL.com
1,104,164
6
Comcast.net
1,083,410
7
Facebook
661,744
8
eBay
644,774
9
The Weather Channel
639,321
10
FOXNEWS.COM
529,037
11
New York Times
495,445
12
YouTube
384,716
13
IMDb
370,502
14
Amazon
351,674
15
NeoPets
348,397
16
CNN
313,851
17
Juno
312,211
18
ESPN.com
260,122
19
Photobucket
253,682
20
CNN Money
240,743
21
NetZero
225,812
22
CNBC
214,595
23
AT&T Worldnet
207,669
24
Verizon Online
204,253
25
Excite
185,390
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
