DISNEY CREATES ONE-STOP ONLINE RESOURCE FOR PARENTS
Disney Family.com blends content, search and community features to help parents answer life’s everyday questions.
Disney Family.com also expected to expand company’s reach into important and growing demographic of moms on the Internet.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., (March 13, 2007) – – The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) today will unveil its new Web site for parents ? especially moms: Disney Family.com (www.family.com). The site, designed to appeal to the more than 32 million moms that are online in the U.S.1, combines content, search and community elements to provide parents with an easy to use, one-stop "best of the Web" resource of family relevant information.
"Consumers, particularly parents, are engaging and interacting with new media like never before and are going online daily in search of answers to parenting related questions or to share experiences with other moms and dads," said Paul Yanover, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online, a division of WDIG.
"In Disney Family.com, we have an opportunity to make the Internet an even better resource for families by incorporating Web 2.0 trends and combining that with the longstanding Disney heritage of serving families with quality entertainment and trustworthy information."
Yanover, who will preview the site today at the iHollywood Digital Media Summit, noted that Disney Family.com also is a natural extension of the Disney brand on the Internet, with an audience the company knows well and already has a good relationship with.
"These recent developments in technology have driven continued growth in Internet usage, and, as a result, there is a massive adult audience that wants access to family relevant information in an easy-to-use format and trusts Disney to provide it."
Disney Family.com is designed to present information on a variety of topics important to today's families ? ranging from education, food and parenting, to advice on traveling with children, entertainment and shopping, in a manner that is compelling, comprehensive, entertaining and, most importantly, objective. The goal of Disney Family.com is to provide parents with answers to pressing questions, with practical and reliable information on the editorial side of the site that is objective.
"We expect Disney Family.com will take on the feel of a corner coffee shop, a relaxed and inviting atmosphere to enter where any number of relevant conversations are taking place," said Emily Smith, vice president in charge of Disney Family.com development. "And, because the community will ultimately decide whether content is relevant, we believe the site will remain on the leading edge in terms of helping parents with information and advice."
From a user's viewpoint, Disney Family.com is:
Content
- A diverse range of original and aggregated content from a variety of reliable sources, specific to the needs and interests of parents - including articles from experts in the parenting field.
- Opinion pieces from parenting bloggers from around the country who cover family related issues.
Answers
- Search for answers in three different ways: the entire Web; a list of 1,000 community recommended sites; or just within the Disney Family.com site.
- The "Disney Family 1,000" is a set of useful sites rated by registered site users as their most recommended online resources for parents - from high profile to hidden gem Web sites.
- Users may choose to search only the Disney Family.com site via search term or keyword for articles, comments and blogs that appear on the site.
- Also features Family Tool Box, a collection of interactive, time-saving search tools on family relevant topics, including recipes, family travel, coupons and entertainment.
Community
- Rich, easy-to-access community of other moms and dads with shared parenting experiences.
- Site guests will be able to create their own profiles, comment on articles, blogs and postings from other guests, rate the quality of information on the site, and rate reliability and usefulness of sites in the Family 1,000.
- Community members can contribute by offering their own unique perspective on Disney Family.com content created by its expert authors or by bloggers.
- Plans for the near future include the ability to create online groups on any imaginable family relevant topic, and to even create private online groups relevant to organizations. For example, a mom could create a closed online group and limit membership, via a password, to the parents of children in her daughter's class.
- Community members also will be able to participate by helping create the ParentPedia, a family wiki of parenting topics that combines expert advice with everyday parents' advice to provide practical information for daily life
A beta version of Disney Family.com is launching this week, and Disney plans to add features and functionality, including the ability to access Disney Family.com via mobile phones and other platforms, within the coming year.
WDIG operates the number-one entertainment destination on the Web for kids and families, Disney.com. Together, The Walt Disney Company Internet properties rank among the top-10 Web properties in the U.S., with more than 50 million unique visitors monthly, and include ABC.com and ESPN.com.2
Disney Family.com joins WDIG's family network of parenting sites, including the award-winning FamilyFun.com and Wondertime.com. FamilyFun.com serves moms with kids ages 3-12 with easy-to-do ideas for family oriented activities. Wondertime.com serves moms with kids 6 years old and under with ideas for playtime activities and easy-to-make crafts.
Walt Disney Internet Group
The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) offers a compelling mix of interactive entertainment and information content and services for Internet and mobile devices for audiences around the world. WDIG is both a developer of unique new media experiences specifically designed for Internet and mobile media and a developer of new platforms for distributing content selected from broad, existing entertainment divisions and libraries of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). Its paramount mission is to provide a safe, secure environment for consumers to experience the Disney brand anytime and anywhere as they inform and entertain themselves, look to join communities with other Disney fans, or shop for products and services. WDIG integrates the unmatched breadth of content with a best-practices approach to Internet and mobile technology and drives multiple revenue streams from premium content offerings, advertising and ecommerce. WDIG, which is headquartered in North Hollywood, Calif., has operations in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas.
Press Contacts:
Brandy Phillips
Walt Disney Internet Group
(818) 623-3764
brandy.phillips@dig.com
Karen Hobson
Disney-ABC Television Group/Digital Media
(818) 569-7789
karen.hobson@disney.com
Maria Kleinman
Walt Disney Records, Media Relations
818-973-4375
maria.kleinman@disney.com
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