In a partnership announced Friday, talk show host and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres is hooking up with Yahoo’s female-oriented content network Shine.
As Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network struggles to find its way in a new digital age, it seems DeGeneres has picked up much of the momentum Winfrey jettisoned when she left her talk show on ABC. DeGeneres wields considerable influence among females in desirable demographics, and the hookup with Shine stands to work out very well for both the star and the network.
Ellen’s own website draws about 2 million unique visitors every month, and vice president of lifestyles media at Yahoo Jessica Jensen boasts that even DeGeneres could benefit thanks to a Yahoo web boost. She said:
“Considering we have 30 million on Shine and 180 million on Yahoo, we can really move the needle for her.”
Along with DeGeneres and popular CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper, Jensen indicates there will be a fair few additional new media partnerships between Yahoo and high-profile personalities:
“You’ll be seeing several more on Shine and other Yahoo properties… We’re basically looking to build out a whole new set of voices on Shine. There will be authors, political figures and network TV personalities. There’s a lot of people knocking on our door. They’ve done great things in print or TV or what have you, and know that if they want to reach 10 million people in a day, Yahoo can do that.”