NBC Universal has chosen Canada and Rogers Media for the second international expansion of its women’s news and lifestyle destination iVillage.com.
iVillage has only moved beyond U.S. borders once before, in 2000 with the launch of a British version—iVillage.co.uk. The new five-year deal with Rogers marks the first expansion under NBCU, which took control of the property in 2006.
Rogers (which also owns Marketing) won the right to wholly manage iVillage.ca after competing against other media organizations in an RFP last autumn. As of March 1, Rogers will oversee all Canadian ad sales for the iVillage network.
Leigh Felesky has been tapped to lead Rogers’ iVillage team as general manager and director. Last year she managed the relaunch of Rogers-owned Chatelaine.com.
A team of writers and editors will be hired to create original content, while items from iVillage.com’s network and several women-focused Rogers properties (Chatelaine and SweetSpot.ca, among others) will also find a home on the new site.
“It will be an iVillage unique to Canadian women with issues important to Canada,” said Christina Litz, senior director and digital product at Rogers Digital Media. “While iVillage is an extremely popular site in Canada already, we believe that by focusing some of the content on areas that are particular to the Canadian woman’s experience, we’ll find new opportunities.”
iVillage.ca is current slated for a spring launch, though no firm date has been announced.
