Wednesday, November 17, 2010
ThisNext Unveils New Homepage, Adds Editor-in-Chief
Santa Monica-based ThisNext, the online social shopping site headed by Matt Edelman, unveiled a new home page Wednesday, and said it has hired an Editor-in-Chief for the site, as part of a slew of changes around the firm's strategy to become a leading social shopping company for women. According to ThisNext, it has hired Marc Alice Haney, a celebrity stylist and women's magazine veteran, as Editor-in-Chief of the site, and also created a "Tastemaker" program which taps celebrity stylists for recommendations on their products.
The new home page and content efforts are a continuation of an effort, started by Edelman, to shift ThisNext away from a purely user-generated social shopping site to one with more of a curated, content-and-editorial heavy site. The firm--which says it is now seeing 6.5 million visitors per month--is looking to sharpen its focus on 25-44 year old women shoppers. New Editor-in-Chief Haney was formerly the West Coast Editor of Marie Claire, Allure and Domino Magazines, and served as West Coast Style Editor for GQ and a Fashion Editor for Harper's Bazaar Paris.
The stylists the firm have tapped as experts for content include Stacey Bendet (alice + olivia), Minnie Mortimer, Estee Stanley, Beth Blake and Melissa Akey (Thread), Stephanie Johnson, Elyse Walker, Lulu deKwiatkowski (Lulu DK), Tom Delavan, Hillary Thomas, Ashunta Sheriff, Rona O’Connor, and Lulu Powers. ThisNext said those various stylists have worked with celebrities such as Blake Lively, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Garner, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields, Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Madonna, Maria Shriver, Arianna Huffington, Bill Clinton, and others.
Edelman took the reins at ThisNext in April, and has been shifting the site to entirely focus on women. Previously, the site was targeted at anyone willing to share their shopping opinions with others. Edelman said in an interview with socalTECH earlier this month that the site had had a challenge of building a bigger and more loyal community without a clearer focus.