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NewsLifeMedia’s Delicious launches first stand-alone website as it eyes off television pilot

Delicious websiteFood and lifestyle magazine Delicious has launched its dedicated stand-alone website this week with the brand also eyeing off potential TV partners for a pilot.

NewsLifeMedia magazine is aiming for 1.2m unique page impressions in its first six months on Delicious.com.au, having launched with two advertising partners – Woolworths and KitchenAid.

Kerrie McCallum, Delicious editor-in-chief, told Mumbrella the aim is for the brand to “own the hunger cycle”.

“Delicious.com.au was a long time coming. When we surveyed our readers something like 92 per cent said if we had a site they would visit it,” said McCallum.

“From the outset we knew there was a ready-made, devoted audience. They wanted something stand-alone so that was the impetus for it, but also once News Corp bought Delicious out from the ABC they put in place a growth plan for the brand to really position it as the leading food lifestyle platform.

McCullum wants to own the hunger cycle

McCullum wants to own the hunger cycle

“I want to own the hunger cycle. I want to know and I want my team to know what people are hungry to do, see and be 24/7 whether that’s when they wake up at 8am on a Monday or are sitting in bed at 4pm on a Sunday, what are they hungry for. That’s across all our platforms. Having a stand-alone site will enable us to reach not only our dedicated community but a whole new community.”

NewsLifeMedia is expecting the site to deliver 1.2m page impressions with an audience of over 300,000 users within the next six months, McCallum said.

“That’s what we want to achieve and I think that’s a conservative estimate. We’ll be using our network of brands – news.com.au, kidspot.com.au, vogue.com.au, taste.com.au – to drive referrals. We see ourselves working hand-in-hand with them to achieve success,” she said.

Delicious.com.au will be launching with a number of content pillars all examined through a food lens and is edited by former Cosmopolitan Bride’s Lauren Sams.

“The verticals are recipes, food files – which is food news and articles, entertaining and style, eating out – which is reviews, drinks and people, events and travel. It’s all done through the lens through food. It’s going to be very entertaining, newsy and functional,” McCallum said.

delicious travel section“Delicious has predominately been brought for its recipes and initially people will head to the website for the recipes, but they will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the news and articles that we run.”

NewsLifeMedia also own Taste.com.au, which also has its own complementary print product, and is known for its recipe archive which links to the Coles online shopping portal.

McCallum said the creation of the Delicious website has been done carefully and deliberately in an effort to avoid cannibalising Taste’s audience.

“We were very clear we couldn’t cannibalise each other and Delicious.com.au had to be a very different offering,” she said.

“It’s more premium, more luxurious and focusing on the entertainer rather then what I’m going to have for dinner tonight. It’s quite different to what Taste does. The site was built with that in mind to make sure we’re a complementary offering.”

In terms of advertising opportunities Delicious.com.au will be a closed shop at first, launching with Woolworths and KitchenAid exclusively.

“That’s for the first few months and after that we’ll be able to take the site to market,” McCallum said.

“In terms of the clients we want to target, we want to target food clients as well as lifestyle clients. We feel food and lifestyle are complementary and the lifestyle and stories around food are as important as the food itself. Automotive, beauty, drinks, travel, technology as well as our key and core food clients.”

In March NewsLifeMedia CEO Nicole Sheffield said Delicious was also looking to enter the TV space.

“That’s definitely the next part of the plan. Our first part was to reposition the magazine as a food and lifestyle brand, which we’ve done, and then to launch a food-lifestyle site or platform and the next part, which is Nicole’s goal, to be have a TV pilot up and running,” McCallum said.

“We’re all focused on the site right now and the focus once that is running well will be to focus on TV partners. It’s a discussion and it’s a strong goal.”

Miranda Ward

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