In case you missed the news in the Irish Times on Friday here's the article. Thank you so much Laura Slattery!
Beaut.ie is “back in the room!!” just days after founder Aisling McDermott closed it down. The cosmetics site has been acquired by the publisher of Entertainment.ie,Entertainment Media Networks, which is part-owned by The Irish Times.
“Look into my eyes, not around the eyes, right into the eyes. And... we’re back in the room,” McDermott wrote on her site yesterday.
“We’ve got a fantastic new partner who is going to make Beaut.ie shinier, snazzier and give it more socks than Marks & Sparks sell at Christmas time.”
McDermott, who set up Beaut.ie as Ireland’s “premier online resource for women who are into cosmetics” in 2006, wrote a “goodbye” post on the site last Saturday, saying she was moving on after “eight years of mascara, foundation, cleanser, clothes and social commentary”.
Disappointed tweets
But the flurry of disappointed tweets from loyal fans did not go unnoticed at Entertainment.ie, where managing director Julian Douglas and his business partners decided the site’s closure would be “a real shame”. The company bought the site on Wednesday and now plans to marry Beaut.ie’s “buzzy” treatment of cosmetics and pop culture to Entertainment.ie’s mix of film, television, music and events.The Irish Times Ltd has a 32 per cent stake in Entertainment Media Networks, while media entrepreneur Dermot Hanrahan is the largest individual shareholder.
Hanrahan said McDermott had “a cheeky, irreverent and highly independent style” and described her as “a kindred spirit”, while Douglas said Beaut.ie was “a jewel” among online publishers that it would now seek to develop commercially.
McDermott also lavished a compliment or two on her new business partners. “A knight in shining armour (think of Fassbender crossed with the Farreller) has galloped into the picture and quite literally given us the kiss of life,” she wrote, referring to actors Michael Fassbender and Colin Farrell.
Honesty
“I am absolutely thrilled,” McDermott added last night, admitting that she had not expected “the wave of sentiment” when she shut down the site.She attributed the reaction to her contributors’ reputation for honesty. There is “a huge appetite for truth” in beauty journalism, where writers are often too wary to say if a product is poor, she believes.
“There are brands that we really love, but we can also spot a dud coming a mile off.”
So what does it mean for Beaut.ie? I've been asked tons of questions which I will endeavour to answer and if you have more please leave them in the comments.
- I've heard rumours online that Aisling won't be involved any more.
Absolutely not. I'm staying right here with Beaut.ie. - The Irish Times and Entertainment.ie are big corporations - they'll just make the site over commercial.
No they don't want to do that at all. Beaut.ie wouldn't work if it wasn't independent, honest and spiky. We were always commercial anyway - we always had ads and sponsored features and competitions on the site but we never let it compromise us. And that's exactly the way things are going to stay. Other sites just rehash press releases - we will categorically never do anything like that. And our new partners don't want anything to change. - Yeah but what will the suits know about the topics Beaut.ie writes about? They won't have the same passion.
You'd be surprised! They want us to go on doing exactly what we're doing, but they will be able to give me the support that I so badly need to bring the site up to the levels that I always dreamed of but was never able to achieve because I didn't have the resources. We'll be able to do everything we do now - and we'll be able to do more of it.
Advertised
Entertainment.ie come from the same background as Beaut.ie. They started off as a small movie reviews site and they're remained true to themselves - honesty, witty and lively, full of personality and fun. They're a perfect fit for us and I honestly couldn't be happier. In fact it's time for a SHRIEK!
Let me know if you've any other questions or concerns, but to start us off I'll preempt one shall I? One of the first things we discussed was the Swap Siopa and YES it will be coming back at last!
