Recently, the Rockford Register Star launched a new-look web site for their Rockford Woman product. We asked Linda Grist Cunningham, executive editor of the newspaper, a few questions about the web site.

1. What is Rockford Woman? Three products are included in the Rockford Woman portfolio: (1) the bi-monthly Rockford Woman magazine; (2) the Web site at RockfordWoman.com; and (3) selected content that is also published in the Sunday Life&Style newspaper section. Rockford Woman Magazine was launched in the spring of 2007; RockfordWoman.com was launched two years later on June 19. The audience for the magazine and the Web site is women, 25-60, educated, working outside the home, with families and money to spend. Our target audience makes 80 percent of the financial decisions for their households. Household income is about $75,000. The women include older GenXers and younger baby boomers raising children; older boomers enjoying the empty nest, pulling siblings together and caring for older parents.

 2. Why did you all decide to redesign the site? We think of RockfordWoman.com as a new site that replaces an existing one. Although we “stuck up something online” when we launched the magazine in 2007, our priority was the magazine. The Web site has been since then a decent-looking re-purposing of the magazine content. It was “good enough,” but that site was nothing to be proud of. In April 2009, we asked this question: What if we launched a local social media site that created a community among women in our target audience? We wanted a social media site, not one dependent on “old-fashioned” user-generated content. We went from that question to launch in less than two months.

3. What are the big changes to the site? What’s the thinking behind the site? RockfordWoman.com is a social networking site for Rock River Valley women that fosters a sense of community and interpersonal support by connecting the women to each other and to services and products important in their lives. RockfordWoman.com is a safe and welcoming place for Rock River Valley women as they share, learn and support each other. It is easy-to-use, useful and connects personally. There are three primary content components:

• Social networking: “What Rockford women are doing”: We integrate the “micro moments of life” approach of Twitter and Facebook status updates as a key content component. We use staff to connect personally every day on the site, and we do the same with Advisory Board members. While blogs and other UGC-content may eventually be part of the mix, we believe time constraints among our audience will make the status update approach far more popular, will keep the site fresh – and will ensure women come back multiple times each day.

• Shopping: “Rockford women shop”: The Home Page “personal shopper” component drives revenue and connects audience with us and with advertisers. The concept creates a retail, service and products “marketplace” that highlights RockfordWoman.com/Rockford Woman Magazine advertisers. A woman can go to the marketplace and our “personal shopper” walks her through the store, its products, what’s on sale, who has what, etc. This is a riff off an old-fashioned retail shopping beat. It is limited to advertisers and will be part of their print and online package. Eventually we hope our audience can shop online at these local advertisers. The personal shopper marketplace is controlled by advertising; it’s look-and-feel integrates seamlessly with the overall look-and-feel of the site. These are paid positions.

• News and information: “What Rockford women need to know”: We expect our audience to bookmark RockfordWoman.com as their portal to the most important news of the day. We want this audience to know that they can come here for the top of the news in all arenas. We accomplish this two ways: (1) Our Rockford Woman editors select their personal choices and offer them with appropriate commentary each day in the “what Rockford women need to know” content component. This helps organize news and information, makes personal connections and establishes hierarchy for news that is important to our audience. We do automatic feeds from the best of our “sister sites,” including rrstar.com, HealthyRockford.com and BusinessRockford.com. Those feeds are include in the “need to know” well. (2) The left-hand navigation pulls from (note the flyouts) or links to deeper, broader content through our sites.

4. What has the reception from readers been to the new site? Traffic and registrations demonstrate the power and possibilities of the new site. In short, they love it. The site officially went live on Friday, June 19. More than 4,000 page views were recorded between Friday’s launch and noon on Monday, making it number 11 over that three-day period. And, month-to-date in June, RockfordWoman.com is number 16 overall on a list that includes rrstar.com, legacy.com, HealthyRockford.com and BusinessRockford.com. As of Monday, almost 100 users had completed full registration on the site and were beginning to post status updates.

5. What is the relationship between print and online with Rockford Woman? RockfordWoman.com is not the magazine online. Although Rockford Woman Magazine content is part of the foundation via the left-hand navigation, the Web site is its own place. They share “staff,” revenue packages can include both platforms, but the two products could exist separately if they had to do so. These are two powerful ways to reach a very powerful audience; both platforms are critical to the success of the portfolio brand.

6. Has the new site been a hit with advertisers, if so, why do you think that is? Advertisers are thrilled on this concept.  They have never seen anything like this nor have they had an opportunity to participate in something like this. They appreciate the promotion and marketing we are doing for both the overall site and specifically for the “Rockford women shop” feature. They also appreciate the ability to change their products in a quick and timely manner.  It's cost-effective and reaching the "perfect audience," as one early advertiser said. Advertisers believe with the credibility of Rockford Woman and with the branding efforts for “the shopper,” our community will be quick to embrace the new site.

7. Any advice for someone who's considering launching a niche site? Two things: (1) make sure the new product drives incremental revenue and incremental audience; and (2) if you don’t have passionate owners for the site, it won’t be successful. We have passionate owners in advertising, news, online, production, circulation, marketing. It belongs to all of us, not just one person or department.

8. Who is in charge of Rockford Woman? The Rockford Woman portfolio is a collaborative venture among the newspaper’s key staff and executives in advertising, news, production, online, circulation and marketing. Newsroom deputy managing editor Jennie Pollock is editor of Rockford Woman; advertising non-daily manager Lori Gallagher is Rockford Woman advertising manager.