Friday, July 25, 2008 East Central Illinois

Of Cats and Kids

Yahoo's Shine: New site with same old stereotypes

Posted by: Carol Lombardi

Monday, March 31, 2008 2:00 PM
Yahoo! launched a new site today, called "Shine." It is supposedly a site for women 25-54. Like me.
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They hope to sell advertising aimed at the key decision-maker in many households. Like me.

Their content partners include Glamour and Good Housekeeping. Ok, maybe not so much like me.

PC World reports that "Yahoo says Shine won't be anything like your mother's Web site that may have featured lean meatloaf recipes and celebrity gossip."

But Shine's lead story today is about a movie star and further down on the page is "The hunt for the perfect matzah ball soup."

The article goes on to say that,"...the Ladies of Shine proclaim women today "no longer need to stand by passively as the media portrays us as fashion-obsessed diet victims."

So why the articles on "Red meat that makes you skinny," and "Eat bread out AND still save on calories?" And why the blog extolling the virtues of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, because the writer loves her hair, makeup and skin?

I know many women in this demographic, and none of them are as shallow as this content. And my mother's web site choices don't include lean meatloaf recipes and celebrity gossip either.

Now that they've insulted two generations, maybe they can introduce a tween web site for my daughter with articles like "Why all girls hate math and science" and "Exercise is bad because it messes up your hair."

Good idea, Yahoo!. Terrible execution.

Comments

Glamour and Good Houskeeping are out-dated publications trying to find new audiences with the same old content,in an on-line format.

The day Shine was launched I took a look and haven't been back since. They are too diversified and keep the intellectual level low to reach a too large marketing audience. I agree with you, they are totally missing their target audience.

I completely avoid "women's" sites. If I want medical information I go to a medical website like mayo.com. If I'm looking for a recipe, I go to sites like epicurious.com. If I want financial information, I go to Yahoo finance or other financial sites. I don't need some fluffy feel good website to get the information I want.

Posted by prairiegourmet on April 9, 2008 at 11:39 AM

Then don't read it. It will succeed or fail based on the number of women in your demographic who frequent the site. If it succeeds, is it really a stereotype?

Posted by Kducey on April 10, 2008 at 6:18 AM

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