The downunder Allure of Jezebel?

racked

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".

The Tatiana mystery - about to be solved

nikola tamindzic

Frockwriter has had some fun over the past 12 months trying to ascertain the identity of the mysterious "Tatiana Anymodel" who writes anonymously about the modelling business - and, increasingly, general fashion - for Nick Denton's high-profile, New York-based womens' blog Jezebel. In fact we devoted five posts to the subject. Our best shot was Kiwi Jenna Sauers, even though Sauers repeatedly denied she was Tatiana, both in comments on this blog and in person, when we bumped into her at last September's New Zealand Fashion Week. Well Jezebel is about to finally unmask Tatiana. And this teaser that appears on the blog of Gawker photographer Nikola Tamindzic tells us three things: Tatiana is white, with brown hair and a rather strong jaw. Compare this shot to a portrait of Sauers that we took in Auckland after the Zambesi show (below). If it is indeed Sauers, this is a big story for New Zealand. UPDATE 22/7: CASE CLOSED - JENNA SAUERS IS TATIANA ANYMODEL.