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When the piece you write for PandoDaily announcing the creation of your new media property draws comparisons to something The Onion would run, well, that isn't a good sign. It is, however, exactly what happened after Bleacher Report's Bryan Goldberg heralded the arrival of Bustle, his new digital ladymag, in bombastic fashion and to major social media snickering.
"Isn’t it time for a women’s publication that puts world news and politics alongside beauty tips? What about a site that takes an introspective look at the celebrity world, while also having a lot of fun covering it? How about a site that offers career advice and book reviews, while also reporting on fashion trends and popular memes?" he asks, while crowing that Bustle has already raised $6.5M in seed and series A funding.
Goldberg seems to be under the impression that he's breaking new ground or reinventing the wheel here - and that it desperately needed to be reinvented. Never before have women had the opportunity to read about pop culture and politics in one convenient location. Watch Obama's surveillance speech and then click over to a slideshow on the hottest nail colors for fall! Or, as Goldberg himself puts it in his PandoDaily proclamation:
"Creating an amazing blend of content — one that puts news and politics right beside fashion tips is what will set us apart. It will also help that we are fast… very fast. When a big event transpires, I expect us to offer original commentary on it within the hour. Sometimes that event will be an Egyptian revolution; sometimes it will be the next 'Bachelorette' selection. Yes, we believe that a partner-track attorney can be passionate about world affairs and celebrity gossip. On the same day. During the same coffee break. And there is nothing wrong with that. Welcome to the year 2013."
No one is arguing that a partner-track attorney can't have diverse tastes in media, but why is she compelled to have them met in one place? How many women do you know who get their news from Cosmo or their fashion tips from Mother Jones? Has Bustle commissioned some in-depth market research that informs them that what women want is to read side-by-side pieces about Cory Booker's Senate run and Kim Kardashian's baby clothing line? The implication of a one-stop-shop is twofold - women need a little celebrity sugar to wash down the medicine of reading hard news and/or women have short attention spans and we need to cater to their capricious media consumption habits by aggregating all of their info needs in one place. Apparently, in Goldberg's version of 2013, market specialization and multi-tasking have yet to be invented.
Also, eyebrow-raising is Goldberg's assertion that content focused specifically on "women's interests" - exactly what are those and how they differ from interests in general isn't clear - is hard to come by online; Forbes would obviously beg to differ. He name-checks Jezebel, PopSugar and Refinery29, but what about The Hairpin, The Jane Dough or The Toast, all of which manage to cater to largely female audiences without resorting to headlines such as "10 Best Brows In The Biz" and none of which received $6.5M to mash up Seventeen and The New Yorker into one content platform?
Ultimately, the fact that Goldberg is a man helming a female-focused publication shouldn't doom him to failure. It's the fact that his read on his proposed target market relies on hoary stereotypes about the sort of content women ages 18 - 34 really care about that may do it. "Isn't it time for a women’s publication that puts world news and politics alongside beauty tips?" Actually, no, that time ended about 50 years ago.
