Women.com Networks and Harlequin Launch Site for Romantics

Posted on February 15, 2000

Women.com Networks, a website for women, and Harlequin Enterprises Limited, a leading publisher of romance fiction, have announced the launch of eHarlequin.com. The new site, which will be closely linked with Women.com's Sex & Romance Channel, offers visitors features, services and content along with e-commerce.

The new site includes 2,000 pages of content, tools and services and a site store in which romance readers can purchase titles direct from the publisher. Women.com is producing and maintaining the eHarlequin.com site and the site store; Harlequin will handle fulfillment for the store. The two companies will share advertising and e-commerce revenues, and will also cross-promote the site through their existing online and offline media assets and relationships, including all Harlequin books published in North America.

eHarlequin.com is the product of a strategic and financial alliance between Women.com and Harlequin parent Torstar Corporation, a media company in Canada. Torstar is an investor in Women.com Networks, and its President and CEO, David A. Galloway, sits on Women.com's board of directors.

Marleen McDaniel, CEO, Women.com commented, ``We are proud to welcome eHarlequin.com to the Women.com network. As the 14th offline media brand to join our network, Harlequin is a prime example of how leading media powerhouses are recognizing Women.com's reach and influence with women on the Web. The Harlequin deal creates outstanding revenue opportunities for both companies through advertising, e-commerce, premium content and, for us, Web site production and maintenance as well as increased network traffic. Further, our advertisers are expressing growing interest in the Sex & Romance channel, which is pulling in millions of visitors. At a time when women are coming to the Internet in droves, we think the Women.com-Harlequin combination offers advertisers a powerful opportunity to reach a very large and loyal audience.''

``For generations of women worldwide, Harlequin is synonymous with romance. Today, with Women.com, we are bringing our powerful brand online and extending our offerings to include interactive tools that will offer our devoted readers new online experiences and attract new Harlequin readers,'' said Brian Hickey, President, eHarlequin.com. ``We've developed a virtual treasure chest of editorial information that has something for everyone. We want to bring the best in romantic escape to the people we're committed to, which is what Harlequin is all about.''