Janice Min's Internet Future
Former Star editor Bonnie Fuller left the celeb magazine world to start a wondrous vapid celeb website. Now, WWD says former Us Weekly editor Janice Min is working on a website of her own. Can she avoid post-magazine online doom?
When Min left Us Weekly last summer, we wondered if she would (as speculated) follow the celeb mag-to-website path of terror. Celeb mag jobs were, until very recently, cushy and incredibly well-paid. Whereas striking out online is fraught with uncertainty and possibly very, very low pay.
WWD cites unnamed sources today who say Min is "interested in launching a celebrity mom-based site." And, more interestingly, that she "has been making the rounds with Ben Silverman pitching Web site concepts to online media, such as AOL."
But we hear that's not quite right. NBC washout Silverman is now putting together websites for Barry Diller, and that it would make little sense for Diller's IAC to be trying to "pitch" any site to AOL on a straight for-sale basis. (Although AOL's "Women" section is not a bastion of editorial brilliance, presently! And AOL's CEO recently brought in a former Google exec to help the company "refashion itself as a top creator of news, entertainment and other digital content." So they're definitely in the market for...something.) Also, Barry Diller himself doesn't mind sinking a ton of money into websites by brand-name former mag editors, as The Daily Beast goes to show. And while Silverman didn't succeed at NBC, he still has good relationships with advertisers—as does Min, presumably, who left Us Weekly by choice, more or less.
So, will Janice Min be the next Bonnie Fuller or the next Tina Brown? A bit of time and a shitload of money will tell.