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Yahoo! Shine

By Courtney Sabin

Whether from home or the office, the Internet has become a part of daily life for women from all walks of life. In fact, more than 40 million women visit Yahoo! every month. To better accommodate this large audience segment, the company recently launched Yahoo! Shine, a site devoted entirely to women’s interests and opinions.

“Shine is the perfect place for women to be informed quickly, saving them time, and it’s the perfect place for them to be entertained and spend the free time they have,” said Bahareh Ramin, Yahoo! Lifestyle PR manager.

According to Ramin, the site, which launched March 31, gives its target audience of women ages 25 to 54 “a place to go for information relevant to their daily lives.”

This includes an array of topics, including “fashion and beauty, parenting, food, home, sex and relationships, work and money, healthy living and entertainment and culture.” To tackle such a miscellany of subjects, the site, which is updated hourly, gathers content from a variety of sources and perspectives.

“We’ve brought together an A-list bunch of editors, content from magazines and blogs women already love and trust, plus content from users who are in their own ways experts on a myriad of topics,” Ramin said. “We had found that sometimes women wanted to know from magazine editors how to put together a perfect dinner party, and sometimes they wanted to hear from other moms about how to get kids to eat vegetables.”

This innovative approach is backed by a team with solid experience in women’s interests. Brandon Holley, previously editor of the now-defunct jane magazine and ELLEgirl.com, serves as editor in chief of the site. In her opinion, it is the site’s ability to provide a multitude of perspectives that helps give Yahoo! Shine a unique voice on the Web.

“You can count on us to bring attitude and personality, and find humor in almost every topic we cover, whether it’s a post on men who wear skinny jeans, how you can get back into your skinny jeans, or whether you’ll be taken seriously if you wear jeans to work.” Holley said. “Yahoo! Shine speaks to you as a friend, telling you the secrets and tips to simplify your life.”

Regular Features

Content is delivered in nine categories each day:

Fashion & Beauty, Food, Healthy Living, Work & Money, Love and Relationships, Parenting, At Home, Entertainment & Culture and Astrology

Making the Pitch

Ramin advised that pitches be tailored to suit the needs and the voice of the site. The topics should be suitable for blogging and fall into one of the categories covered daily.

“PR professionals should spend some time getting to know the individual editors,” she said. “Pitches should be relevant to the individual topic and what the editor covers.”

In addition to story pitches, Ramin stressed the unique opportunity to start a conversation about your product or service with readers through one of the site’s user blogs.

“There is a great opportunity for PR people to participate on Shine and gain exposure with Yahoo!’s audience,” she said. “If you or a client are an expert on a topic related to the content categories, consider starting a blog on Shine where you can share your expertise with other women while exposing your name, service or product.”

Her one caveat: “Be advised, however, that the team is cautious of overly promoted posts and will not allow content that’s not useful to their audience.”

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Contact Information
701 First Ave
Sunnyvale, Calif. 94089
Phone: (408)349-3300
Fax: (408)349-3301
shine.yahoo.com

Brandon Holley, editor in chief
bholley@yahoo-inc.com