Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The downunder Allure of Jezebel?


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Could Gawker Media's high profile ladyblog Jezebel be heading to Australia for a slice of the A$1.8billion Oz online advertising pie? That's what some are wondering, after spotting this seek.com.au advertisement from Allure Media, which is looking for editorial staff for the imminent launch of "a well-known women's lifestyle network" in this market. The Sydney-based digital publisher already owns the Oz licenses to Gawker Media's Defamer, Gizmodo, Kotaku and Lifehacker - in addition to the local license to parenting blog Babble - a network it claims attracts over 1.65 million readers per month. UPDATE 14/09/09: IT'S NOT JEZEBEL - ALLURE MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF THE SUGAR NETWORK INTO AUSTRALIA.

Jezebel, whose promo line is “Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for women, Without Airbrushing”, attracts a monthly audience of 1.4million according to Quantcast, 1.1million of that hailing from the US, with 49percent female readership.

And while the site's edgy, neo-feminist slant has proven popular with readers, others have called out what they claim to be the double-standards of some Jezebel writers who lament the sexualisation of women, while posting degrading images of themselves.

Over the past 12 months the site garnered considerable interest over the mystery surrounding its anonymous model blogger "Tatiana", who unmasked herself last month as Jenna Sauers (although her ID came as no surprise to readers of this blog).

Allure Media's md Chris Janz did not return calls this afternoon and two media buyers told frockwriter that they had as yet heard nothing.

According to Fusion Strategy media analyst Steve Allen, a local Jezebel would be "an interesting move indeed. Allure has come onto our radar because they are building traffic and assets quite quickly".


2 comments:

Isaac Likes said...

I'm amazed that only 49% of Jezebel's readership is female...? Doesn't that strike anybody else as odd?

Patty Huntington said...

if you click on the "others have called out" hyperlink to salon.com's double X womens' blog, double X suggests jezebel's high male readership (which was only 49% at the time that story was posted) could be attributed to its heavy sex emphasis.

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