iVillage launches new health site; network now reaching 33 million monthly unique users in US and UK

iVillage, which describes itself as the largest women's content driven community, yesterday launched a new health channel.

Existing sites include: Diet & Fitness, Relationships, Parenting, Pregnancy & Baby, Health, Beauty, Food & Drink, Home & Garden Travel, Money, News & Entertainment, Work & Career and Astrology.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk at the Guardian's Changing Media Summit on Thursday, iVillage network general manager Rebecca Miskin said months had been spent monitoring female user online behaviour in labs.

Rebecca Miskin talking to Journalism.co.uk here:



What they learnt from this research was that "community and curated content weren't these separate silos".  

The health site will provide links to all kinds of different information, to the NHS as well as other sources of information.

Topics break down into: Women's Health; General Health; Natural Health; Healthy Living Community; NHS tools; Picture Galleries and Diet & Fitness.

Employed editors, marketeers and production staff work alongside volunteer community managers - some of whom end up as employees.

"We believe it's up to our users and members to select the type of content. We leave the choice to our members."

Bigger than Mumsnet, for example, iVillage currently attracts 33 million unique users a month to its UK and US sites.

More audio: Rebecca Miskin talking with panel chair, the Guardian's head of social media development, Meg Pickard at yesterday's Guardian Changing Media Summit, about community moderation and participation.

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