Beaut.ie buyers to go shopping for sites

The new owners of Beaut.ie will be relaunching the site shortly with freelance writer Andrea Kissane as its full-time editor.

Entertainment Media Networks, the publisher behind Entertainment.ie, says it is planning to "ramp up" its focus on the cosmetics site and make further similar acquisitions.

"We are realising that economies of scale are really important," says managing director Julian Douglas. "It makes huge sense for us to add more like-minded websites to our stable."

The web publisher is interested in any existing entertainment, lifestyle or sport site with “a good solid audience – maybe not a huge audience – but a good reputation” with which it can “cross-fertilise” its content, Douglas says. “We don’t want to go into hard news.”

A network of "perhaps five to 10 publications" would be "an optimum level" of consolidation. "To run standalone digital publications given the size of the Irish audience and advertising spend is a challenge."

Shareholders
The Irish Times Ltd has a 32 per cent stake in Entertainment Media Networks, where media entrepreneur Dermot Hanrahan is the largest individual shareholder.

The company bought Beaut.ie in January, deciding it could marry its “buzzy” treatment of cosmetics and pop culture to Entertainment.ie’s mix of film, television, music and events.

The Irish Times ' beauty columnist Aisling McDermott, who co-founded Beaut.ie with her sister Kirstie in 2006, remains involved in a consultancy capacity and Douglas says the site will have "the same voices and the same tone that it has always had".