xoJane to launch in the UK

US women’s lifestyle site xoJane is preparing to launch in the UK to fill what its founders believe is a gap in the market for an “indulgent” site for women.

xoJane

Its owners say content will be driven by the personality of the editorial staff, rather than a corporate voice.

Founder Jane Pratt hopes to create an “ultra-personal dialogue with British women by presenting a level of intimacy and honesty never seen before in UK media”.

XoJane will target mainly women between 24 and 44, but Pratt believes that the target audience is more of a ‘psychographic’ group than a traditional age and social status-based demographic.

Pratt’s US site also boasts dwell time of around five minutes on average, which she claims surpasses the one or two minute average that online versions of traditional women’s print titles get.

It is hoped that the higher levels of engagement will appeal to UK advertisers and sponsors, as well as its ‘spotlight’ advertising model that means only one brand will appear on the site’s pages at a time, to avoid clutter from multiple ads, Pratt adds.

Since launching in the US a year ago, xoJane has around 700,000 unique users and 3.5 million page views a month, and was named as one of the top 10 women’s lifestyle sites by Forbes just two months after launch.

The site will launch in May in partnership with Say Media. Former Handbag.com editor Rebecca Holman will lead the UK site. She has also worked on Asos and Cath Kidston brand magazines

A PR and digital ad campaign will promote the site’s launch in the UK.

Recommended

Michael

What links pregnant men and the price of pecans?

Michael Barnett

According to the National Health Service, 20,000 men in the UK are pregnant. It’s just one example of how dodgy data gathering can be obscuring, rather than illuminating. And Experian says marketers are throwing away 15% of their budget because of mistakes like this.