NBCU has announced a strategic partnership between iVillage and BlogHer, a network of 2,200 women’s blogs. NBCU will combine the partnership with its other female-friendly brands, Oxygen.com, BravoTV.com and Sugar Inc. to form a sales and marketing network that it calls “the largest online aggregation of top-tier women’s media brands.” As part of the deal, NBCU’s Peacock Ventures participated in a $5 million funding round with BlogHer. Press release below… (Full disclosure: I work for msnbc.com, a joint venture of NBCU and Microsoft.)
New York, NY — July 16, 2008 — iVillage, the leading online destination for women, has entered a strategic partnership with BlogHer, the Web’s number-one community for women bloggers. This landmark agreement provides iVillage access to BlogHer’s extensive network of 2200 women’s blogs, and promotional opportunities across BlogHer’s large and influential audience. As part of the arrangement, iVillage, Oxygen.com and BravoTV.com will feature select BlogHer content. The announcement was made today by Lauren Zalaznick, President of Women and Lifestyle Entertainment networks for NBC Universal.
The deal includes a $5 million series B investment, financed by Peacock Equity, the joint venture between NBC Universal and GE Commercial Finance’s Media, Communications & Entertainment business, and returning investor Venrock, a venture capital firm.
With an extensive online community of women, whose diverse writing includes core lifestyle topics, BlogHer perfectly complements iVillage. The deal builds on iViIlage’s incredible momentum, marked by 23 consecutive months of year-over-year growth in unique visitors.
“This strategic partnership underscores NBC Universal’s serious commitment to invest in the future growth of iVillage and the newly formed Women@NBCU sales initiative,” said Zalaznick. “I am incredibly excited to tap into this new online community and superserve both clients and consumers in today’s robust women’s marketplace.”
“We’re excited to work with NBC Universal to raise the profile, voices and earning potential of the extraordinary bloggers in our network, and we cannot imagine better partners than iVillage, Bravo and Oxygen, with their superior programming and tools, both online and on-air,” said BlogHer co-founders Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone in a joint statement.
Zalaznick also announced the formation of a female-targeted digital ad sales network, as part of the overall strategy for Women@NBCU, the company’s new content and marketing initiative geared to women. The sales network, comprised of BravoTV.com, Oxygen.com, iVillage and Sugar Inc, creates the largest online aggregation of top-tier women’s media brands.
“In today’s fragmented market, Women@NBCU digital is uniquely positioned to offer advertisers access to a wide range of women with one-stop-shopping,” said Peter Naylor, Senior Vice President of Digital Media Sales for NBC Universal. The BlogHer partnership, in addition to our already robust offering in the women’s digital space, gives us an unparalleled online presence in this key sector of the market.”
With all the Women@NBCU digital properties included under the iVillage banner, advertisers can target the coveted female demographic through a single ad buy. Additionally, the Women@NBCU and BlogHer sales forces will collaborate on joint advertising deals. This announcement comes on the heels of Women@NBCU’s first deal – a sponsorship across iVillage and “TODAY” customized exclusively for Wal-Mart.
About BlogHer:
Founded in February 2005 by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. BlogHer provides the number-one community and media network of blogs by women via a community hub (http://www.blogher.com), annual conferences and an advertising network of more than 2,200 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates. BlogHer provides the highest quality content on a range of topics, with all blogs continually edited to meet strong editorial standards, including content quality, category relevance and blog frequency.
About Women@NBCU:
Launched in May 2008, Women@NBCU is a powerful combination of top tier media assets reaching women across multiple platforms. This content and marketing initiative creates custom solutions for advertisers to connect with the desirable female demographic through NBC Universal brands, including Bravo, Oxygen, iVillage, “Green is Universal,” as well as other female-skewing properties such as “TODAY” and certain NBC primetime programs.
