Three months ago saw Seven West Media take back the digital assets for its Pacific Magazines properties from Yahoo7, now Yahoo7 is unrolling a new entertainment and lifestyle platform that plays to its strength.
Titled 'Be', the new site had its soft launch today – with the official launch event being held on July 14. Be will generate content across the categories of Entertainment, Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle, Food and Travel.
The site sees Yahoo7 team with Australian personalities to create and publish video and socially-driven content, with celebrities including radio personality Maz Compton, as well as ex-My Kitchen Rules contestants Ash Pollard and Scott Gooding.
Explaining this move, Yahoo7 CEO Ed Harrison tells Mumbrella this was born out of the insight that "personality-led content does trump general lifestyle-entertainment content. Strong personalities with strong media followings can be incredibly valuable and that’s our starting point for all of this. It’s recognising the power of social media for content distribution.”
This content will make up a small but valuable component of what the site offers. “It’s really multi-layered in terms of our approach to editorial. They’re the backbone if you like, the first layer of content and a lot of what they do will be video-led. Then we have our own Yahoo editorial staff who’ll be looking to amplify this content and create digital content that complements what they’re doing," explains Harrison. Be will also utilise its Yahoo global contributor network which includes many different sources.
There will be significant staff numbers behind Be, with employees previously working across traditional verticals and individual mastheads for Pacific Magazines moving over to the title. Each week the site will generate around 150 pieces of content including both video and written articles.
