• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, August 11, 2016

Refinery29’s NewFronts presentation deserved some kind of award for high energy -- and possibly a citation from the fire department for overcrowding. But it was hard to come away from it not thinking that for the NewFronts, always packed with manufactured excitement, this women’s lifestyle site’s hype show seemed refreshingly authentic.

So today's announcement that it's completed a new $45 million round of financing isn't surprising. Refinery29 is in growth mode.

The big name in that grouping of wallets is Turner, the broadcasting/cable wing of Time Warner, which doesn’t have a cable network that appeals to woman 2016.0. Part of the arrangement is to sprinkle the Refinery29 brand all over Turner properties.

The Wall Street Journal suggests a tie-in with TBS’ “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” which makes some sense. Turrner and Refinery29 will team up on some ad sales. 

 “In order to achieve success in today’s quickly evolving digital environment, we believe in partnering with brands that have distinct voices and loyal, engaged audiences,” stated David Levy, president of Turner, and one of cable’s smartest execs.

Christina Miller, general manager of Turner’s Cartoon Network, has a seat waiting for her on Refinery29’s board.

Scripps Interactive, which chucked in $50 million on an earlier Refinery29 funding round, also participated in this one. Old-line broadcasters continue to discover that their next children may have already been born on digital. They want to adopt some. Ask Vice, which has an increasingly cozy deal with HBO and its new Viceland, fronted by A&E Networks.

Amy Emmerich, once senior vice president of programming for Scripps’ Ulive digital lifestyle network, joined Refinery29 last year and has become its content chief and women’s cheerleader. At NewFronts, she argued that all that talk about “women’s empowerment” is all old news. “The message is no longer authentic,” she said. Now, women already have the power. (It sounded more exciting coming from her.)

Refinery29 claims 27 million unique Web site visitors, but like everybody else, it’s counting platforms, and there it claims 225 million users across all platforms. It’s branched off internationally and in the last year, has flung itself into virtual reality with VR29 Studios, which announced plans to put out a VR product once a week.

It’s made high profile film/directing deals with actresses, including America Ferrara, Kristen Stewart, Gabourney Sidibe and Chloe Sevigny for its women-themed “Shatterbox Anthology.” It also just started a separate Riot channel on YouTube devoted to hip women’s humor and featuring well-known faces from Lena Dunham to Jessi Klein to Aziz Ansari.

You get the idea Turner might find a lot to like with Refinery29.

pj@mediapost.com