News DNA boss hopes original content will help its new women’s network to beat competitors
News DNA boss Nicole Sheffield has said the fact its new female focused ‘With Her in Mind Network’ will hold its own in a crowded market because it has been created from scratch rather than as an aggregator of content from other places.
The publisher announced the new network play yesterday, coming after the likes of Nine Entertainment and Bauer Media flicked the switch on their own dedicated female offerings to compete with Mamamia.
Nicole Sheffield said “we are investing heavily in ensuring we deliver the best video offering”.
Nicole Sheffield, managing director of News DNA, acknowledged the amount of competition but told Mumbrella: “We’ve basically created this website from scratch, it’s not an aggregation of TV products or of other sites or of magazines, it’s actually been created as it says with her in mind.
“If we want anything that is relevant, that’s interesting and speaks to us we have to go to global sites, and so we see an opportunity to actually bring that to her in Australia.”
Publishers have been racing to grab female-focussed dollars in recent years with competitors in market including 9Honey which will be run by Helen McCabe, Bauer’s To Love network, Fairfax’s Daily Life and the Daily Mail’s Femail sections.
Despite that competition Sheffield said she wanted whimn.com.au to “be the number one female news and information source in this country”.
“But we are also realistic that it is a market where there is a lot of entrants in there and we have to actually create another strong brand and a strong community around women,” she added.
News flagged the launch of the new platform two months ago when it poached Pacific Magazines’ editor of Women’s Health, Felicity Harley, to lead the editorial team, with the network relying on a number of exclusive international partnerships and locally-sourced content.
Sheffield said video would be a key component for the platform, with native advertising integrated into the site: “There are always going to be short videos that work in digital environments, they’re not videos created for broadcast or television that are cut down for digital.
The network aims to create a site which understands what content connects, providing women with content that will actually resonate.
“Understanding what content resonates, understanding how to drive content understanding how to actually connect are all things that we’ve spent a long time doing,” she said.
The site will be free for users, relying on advertiser funding through display and native ads.
News Corp’s RendezView will form a portion of the paid content strategy, but will remain a separate entity.
During the new year whimn.com.au will announce new output deals, said Sheffield.
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“Whimn” is a truly awful name. What were you thinking when you came up with this name, Nicole et al? Right up there with Nine’s “Honey” network for women. As for the idea that women will flock to this portal because it’s been created from scratch, rather than pulling content from different sources: do you really think readers care about this, or even make the distinction. If the content delivers something of value to women, they will come — irrespective of whether the content has been created from scratch or not. In the crowded space of female-focussed content, it will need to be quite outstanding to stand out.
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How embarrassing – they should have had “her in mind” and come up with a better name!
Reaks of panic just to get something in market!
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IS that name a joke? SOunds like it was dreamt up by a few blokes over a few bevvies as a pisstake….
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