Chatelaine.com, the web property for Chatelaine‘s English-language edition, has introduced an extensive redesign aimed at making the site a daily destination for Canadian women.
The redesign, unveiled yesterday by the Rogers Media property, includes a new searchable database of 3,000 recipes from “The Chatelaine Kitchen,” an A-Z health guide, and nine new blogs–including a new TV blog called “What We Watched Last Night.”
The top section of the home page also features a new product called “Daily Fix,” which is updated daily and offers content dedicated to four key areas: “eat,” “do,” “know” and “discuss.” Readers can also sign up to have “Daily Fix” delivered directly to their in box.
“We’re really working towards being a place that [women] want to come every day,” said Leigh Felesky, general manager, women’s community for Rogers Media, Digital. “In order to do that we have to have a fresh stream of new content.”
The redesign was first conceived about a year ago, said Felesky, and has been in development for about six months.
“With time the functions and features of any site start to need an update,” she said. “We just felt we needed to be a little bit more of a daily touch-point in order to increase our traffic.”
The new site also offers improved social media functionality, providing direct links to both Twitter and Facebook. “We particularly wanted to make sure it was networked,” said Felesky. “We know that a lot of our users are on Facebook and Twitter, so we wanted to make sure they could use Chatelaine.com as part of their day.”
The site re-launch is being supported by a new TD-sponsored contest called “The Fresh Start Challenge” that invites women to make a 30-day pledge towards bettering their lives in areas such as love, health and family, and post it at Chatelaine.com and via social media channels. Participants will receive a weekly e-mail cheering them on and will be able to keep followers apprised of their progress.
