Ex-Australian Women’s Weekly editor Helen McCabe named head of Lifestyle for Nine.com.au
The former editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly Helen McCabe has joined Nine Entertainment Co as head of the Lifestyle vertical for its recently relaunched web presence nine.com.au.
McCabe: new head of Lifestyle for Nine.com.au
The announcement comes exactly six months after McCabe announced she had quit the Bauer-owned women’s magazine – which has the biggest circulation of any monthly in Australia – “to pursue other interests”.
The announcement is also a statement of serious intent from Nine which is focussed on improving its online offering, which it rebranded from NineMSN on July 1.
In a statement released on Sunday Nine’s chief digital and marketing officer Alex Parsons said: “Helen will bring a wealth of content and commercial experience coupled with real leadership energy to our nine.com.au lifestyle business.
“I am really excited to be working with Helen to continue to drive and develop our already significant sites including 9Honey, 9Coach and the recently launched 9Kitchen.
“Our future offering will be vastly different to anything in the Australian market today and I look forward to making that a reality with Helen.”
McCabe was noted for bringing a harder and newsier edge to the Weekly in her seven years at the helm, landing a series of political exclusives including the now infamous cover with then Prime Minister Julia Gillard knitting a woollen kangaroo.
Speculation over her future had linked her for a potential tilt for a seat in parliament at the election, and recent news coverage suggested she was set to launch a privately-funded website of her own.
McCabe said in a statement: “After 20 odd years in newspapers and magazines this is the dream role. Nine, under Hugh Marks and Alex Parsons, has an ambitious vision for its lifestyle sites. It means I get to continue my passion for creating exciting, relevant content and products for Australian women.”
Nine CEO Hugh Marks said the appointment was “another strong statement on our focus on delivering great Australian content to our audiences across all platforms”.
He added: “Helen has a strong creative vision, a valuable understanding of the content that drives audience engagement, and very longstanding commercial relationships.”
Let’s hope she can help sort out the extremely dated looking new nine.com.au logo! There is no way this was designed by anyone who has ever visited the Internet. Good luck with the notorious 9 Promos team Helen, if the new nine logo is anything to go by you are going to need it!
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Excellent news for Nine. Helen is the best in the business. A great talent.
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Many Best Wishes to you Helen its sounds all very exciting I know you will certainly make the best of whatever you embark on.
We still talk about your lovely visit to Griffith NSW a few years ago visiting with Xanthe Roberts to help me promote an all important fundraiser for Griffith Can Assist. We loved how you took the time to visit – we only wish you may have the time to visit again. May you enjoy many good times ahead. Olga Forner (President) Griffith Can Assist.
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Anyone got insight on what this means for the existing nine.com.au editorial structure?
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