medialifemagazine.com
For these women, second acts, to chat
By Heidi Dawley
May 28, 2008 - 1:05:38 AM
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. |
|
Average use
Through May 18 |
|
|
Current Week
|
Last Week
|
% Change
|
|
Sessions/Visits per Person
|
16
|
17
|
-5.88
|
|
Domains Visited per Person
|
40
|
39
|
2.56
|
|
PC Time per Person
|
17:27:52
|
17:32:25
|
-0.43
|
|
Active Digital Media Universe
|
141,693,992
|
141,805,625
|
-0.08
|
|
Current Digital Media Universe Estimate
|
222,445,982
|
222,383,382
|
0.03
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online |
© 2010 Media Life
|
|