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iVillage, Inc. was a
mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit information ...
company that operated the ”most popular female-oriented sites” on the internet in the 1990s. In addition to ivillage.com, the company operated
iVillage UK iVillage UK was a British women's lifestyle website run by media company iVillage, owned by NBC Universal. History iVillage UK was established in December 2000 as a British branch of US website iVillage.com. It was shut down in 2014 when its t ...
, Astrology.com, GardenWeb, and the NBC Digital Health Network. The iVillage website ceased operations on October 31, 2014, and the
domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
was redirected to the ''
Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
'' website, while the other domain names were sold.


History

The company was established in
Silicon Alley Silicon Alley is an area of high tech companies centered around southern Manhattan's Flatiron district in New York City. The term was coined in the 1990s during the dot-com boom, alluding to California's Silicon Valley tech center. The term h ...
in
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in 1995 by Candice Carpenter, Nancy Evans, and
Robert Levitan Robert Levitan (born April 22, 1961) is an American businessman best known for his multiple entrepreneurial activities in New York City's Silicon Alley, the cluster of web and technology businesses stretching from Manhattan's Flatiron District thr ...
. The company's first content site was "Parent Soup", an
online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...
channel on
America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...
. The company soon established other communities such as "AboutWork", "Better Health & Medical", and "Life Soup". iVillage hosted moderated message boards and chatrooms, and on Parent Soup alone hosted 450 scheduled chat sessions per week. Examples of chat rooms on the Relationships site included: "Dating Dilemmas, Couples Clinic, How to Kiss Better, The Wedding Women, Ms. Demeanor and a chat session for the Ex-Wives Club." When iVillage launched, it demanded high prices for channel and content area sponsorships, and the first four sponsors were Polaroid, Nissan, Toyota and MGM. iVillage pioneered a new model for online advertising where it worked with advertisers to create custom content that was relevant and useful for the community, but got into trouble when its free site hosting platform was used to harvest keywords and show competitors' ads on commercial sites, while denying this activity when merchants discovered it. iVillage was also caught inserting derogatory terms into the URLs of discussion boards and other user-generated content. When Procter & Gamble Co. began advertising on the Web in 1996, it relented on its notorious demands for pay-per-click pricing deals in order to advertise with iVillage's Parent Soup. In March 1999, the company became a
public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
via an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
, offering shares at $24 each. The stock price reached to nearly $100 in the first day of trading and reached over $130 per share within days, valuing the company at over $2 billion. However, by December 2000, after the bursting of the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
, the stock price was under $1 per share. Most of the original management and staff left the company. Controversies had arisen over financing irregularities and company management, and the company had never had a profitable quarter. In 2001, under new management, the company acquired women.com for $47 million. In May 2006,
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...
acquired iVillage for $600 million, or $8.50 per share. In July 2008, the company entered into a partnership with
BlogHer BlogHer is an American media company founded by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory des Jardins, and Lisa Stone in 2005. It is an online blogger community and holds a yearly conference for women bloggers. BlogHer is owned by SHE Media which is a division o ...
, an online news, entertainment and information network for women. In December 2009, the company relaunched Astrology.com. The site was shut down and redirected to the website of
Today.com ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It wa ...
in 2013. In 2015, Astrology.com was acquired by Horoscope.com and GardenWeb.com was acquired by
Houzz Houzz is an American website, online community and software for architecture; interior design and decorating; landscape design and home improvement. It was founded in 2009 and is based in Palo Alto, California. History Houzz was founded as an onl ...
.


Television show

''iVillage Live'' (later ''In the Loop with iVillage'') was a daily series intended for
broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
which served as a brand extension attempt to extend the iVillage brand to television. The series never extended beyond the 9
NBC Owned Television Stations NBC Owned Television Stations (formerly NBC Local Media and NBC Television Stations Division (TVSD)) is the division of NBCUniversal Owned TV Stations (NBCUniversal), a subsidiary of Comcast that oversees the NBC owned-and-operated television ...
, and went through two different iterations before ending after 15 months, airing between December 4, 2006, and March 28, 2008. The first iteration of the series originated from
Universal Orlando Resort Universal Orlando Resort, commonly known as Universal Orlando or simply Universal, formerly Universal Studios Escape, is an American theme park and entertainment resort complex based in Orlando, Florida. The resort is operated by Universal Pa ...
as one of NBC's first major on-air synergy efforts with the recently acquired
Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
.
WTVJ WTVJ (channel 6) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Fort Lauderdale–licensed WSCV (ch ...
/
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held production responsibilities for the series, which was hosted by a group of relatively unknown hosts, including Molly Pesce, Stefani Schaeffer and Guy Yovan, with
Naamua Delaney Naamua Delaney Sullivan is a former news anchor for CNN from December 2007 to November 2009. She began her career as an entertainment reporter for MTN in Winnipeg, Canada. She graduated from Law School at the University of London. Born in Kent ...
and Bob Oschack as contributing correspondents. The show also aired on a one-day delay on
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when it launched, but the repeats ended on Bravo after 3 weeks. The first season format was deemed unsuccessful, but NBC continued to see potential in an iVillage series, along with the aspect of using former contestants from the
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
-hosted
reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
series ''
The Apprentice ''The Apprentice'' is a reality talent game show franchise originally aired in 2004 in the United States. Created by U.S.-based British producer Mark Burnett, the show depicts contestants from around the country with various professional backg ...
'' to boost the show's profile for possible nationwide syndication in the 2008–09 season. On September 4, 2007, NBC Universal Television and iVillage.com announced the relaunch of ''IVillage Live'' as ''In the Loop with iVillage'', referencing the
Chicago Loop The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and is the main section of Downtown Chicago. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in Nort ...
. Premiering on September 17, it originated from
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, being filmed from the
NBC Tower __NOTOC__ The NBC Tower is an office tower on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois located at 454 North Columbus Drive (455 North Cityfront Plaza is also used as a vanity address for the building) in downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile area. ...
and being originated by Chicago NBC O&O
WMAQ-TV WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo outlet WSNS-TV (c ...
. Hosts for ''In the Loop'' included actress
Kim Coles Kim LaShaunda Coles (born January 11, 1962) is an American actress, comedian and game show host. Coles is known for her roles as a cast member on ''In Living Color'' for the first season (1990-1991) and as Synclaire James-Jones on television sitco ...
, along with the aforementioned ''Apprentice'' alums, including first season winner
Bill Rancic William Rancic (; born May 16, 1971) is an American entrepreneur who was the first candidate hired by The Trump Organization at the conclusion of the first season of Donald Trump's reality television show ''The Apprentice''. He is married to E! ...
and fellow contestant Ereka Vetrini. In the end, ''In the Loop'' was unable to maintain any ratings momentum, and was unable to complete the 2007-08 television season or acquire distribution on stations outside NBC (and by its end, its connections with iVillage were limited to polls and discussion forums). On February 18, 2008, the series was cancelled. Production of the series continued until March 21, followed by a week of rebroadcasts; the final original episode was re-aired on March 28.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivillage 2000s American television talk shows 2006 American television series debuts 2008 American television series endings Companies based in New York City First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Mass media companies established in 1995 Internet properties established in 1995 Mass media companies disestablished in 2014 Internet properties disestablished in 2014 Mass media in Chicago Online mass media companies of the United States Television series by Universal Television American women's websites