Time Inc. acquires websites aimed at women as it looks to boost its digital platforms
Time Inc. has bolstered its digital reach with the acquisition of two websites owned by Say Media Inc. and aimed at young women.
The purchase of xoVain.com and xoJane.com will help the Sports Illustrated and InStyle publisher increase its reach with younger women and generate more advertising from the beauty and style categories.
The first of the two properties, xoVain.com, is a beauty site which gives makeup tips while xoJane.com describes itself as a woman’s site focused on being “inclusive and encouraging” and runs stories across sections such as “it happened to me”, “healthy” and “issues”.
Both publications have enjoyed growing success in the last two years with XoJane.com increasing its audience by over 104 per cent in two years and attracting 2.5 million unique visitors in September, according to measurement firm comScore. xoVain.com meanwhile attracted 958,000 unique visitors in September which is 163,000 more than October 2014. Editor of the two sites, Jane Pratt and her editorial team are expected to move to Time incs. new headquarters in lower Manhattan later this year.
The acquisition of the two sites comes as Time Inc. continues to strengthen its digital credentials as a means of compensating for declines in print ad revenue. Earlier this summer it purchased three youth-focused digital sports companies designed to accompany its Sports Illustrated brand.
Both xoJane.com and xoVain.com will be part of the company’s style network, which includes publications such as InStyle and Essence.