HP and IPC Magazines to Launch Women's Internet Network

Posted on February 4, 2000

Hewlett-Packard Company and IPC Magazines, Europe's leading publisher of women's magazines, have formed an alliance to develop Beme.com, an Internet destination for women. This is the third brand to be unveiled by IPC Electric, the digital trading arm of IPC Magazines, and follows IPC Electric's recent announcement that it will be partnering with HP.

IPC Electric and HP will collaborate on new Internet technologies, building on IPC Electric's stated business strategy of using emerging technology to transfer content to new technology platforms as they come to market. At a European press launch, IPC and HP demonstrated how Beme.com has been enabled for mobile e-services via a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) solution.

Beme.com currently features several hundred news items and articles. It comprises six channels, including the ``My Beme'' channel, which can be personalized, and approximately 7 or 8 subchannels. A selection of relevant articles and features drawn from Beme.com's online editorial content has been `wapped'' so that women on the move can access Beme.com from their WAP-enabled mobile phones.

``We know what women in our target market require,'' said Sly Bailey, chief executive officer of IPC Magazines. ``On the whole, they're time poor but money rich. They want an Internet destination that is relevant, informative and entertaining. Beme.com will provide easy access to a wealth of expertise across every aspect of women's lives.''

Beme.com is the women's network brand from IPC Electric, IPC's newly-formed Internet business. IPC is Europe's largest publisher of magazines for women. IPC publishes three of the UK's top five women's weeklies in Woman, Woman's Own and Woman's Weekly, Britain's number two fashion monthly Marie Claire.