• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 7, 2009

Seeking salvation online, beleaguered celebrity news publisher OK! Magazine has tapped media network Buzz Media to relaunch its Web site. Enhancements include new photo gallery features to better display the site's style and beauty sections, easier navigation, a more engaging display of content, a sleeker design, and new promotional areas and ad placements.

On Tuesday, the site's editorial content was almost entirely overshadowed by ads for Universal Pictures' new Sacha Baron Cohen comedy "Bruno." The "Bruno" campaign includes a customized and integrated story rating system for visitors to vote on content using "Brunoisms" -- "in" or "aus" -- the results of which can be found on Buzz Media's Celebuzz.com.

"The new OKMagazine.com is a more robust, exciting and visual experience," said Lori Burgess, publisher of OK! Magazine. "It provides an enhanced platform for more compelling print and digital packages."

Appealing to consumer demand for fresh content, the new platform allows OK! editors to post at greater speed, as well as to more prominently show off exclusives.

In the coming months, OKMagazine.com plans to work with Buzz Media to add new features to the site, including more user participation capabilities and custom channels, along with new video experiences.

The American edition of Northern + Shell's OK! Magazine has suffered a worse fate than other publishers in recent years. Last year it lost an average of about $450,000 per week, The New York Post reported last month, citing figures from the British government's agency for tracking corporate performance.

According to comScore, nearly 55 million U.S. consumers visited an entertainment news site in May 2009, representing a 7% increase year-over-year. Alas, OKMagazine.com did not make the research company's May list of Top 10 sites in the category.

Yahoo's celebrity gossip site omg! led the category with 20.6 million visitors -- nearly doubling its audience in the past year. TMZ captured the Number 2 ranking with 9.9 million visitors -- up 7% versus a year ago -- followed by People, which actually saw a 10% drop in traffic, with 8.2 million visitors.

Buzz Media -- which ditched its original name, Buzznet, in March -- oversees a network of pop culture blogs like the Superficial, Stereogum, and Idolator, reaching roughly 40 million unique monthly users.

Each Buzz Media property is made up a professional editorial team, which encourages contributions from audiences. This approach is designed to cost-effectively program thousands of topics to drive large and engaged audiences across its branded properties.

The Los Angeles-based startup recently closed a round of financing worth $12.5 million, and less than a year ago closed a round in the neighborhood of $25 million.

The company has used some of its capital to buy independent Web publishers like Stereogum, which it acquired for a reported $5 million in stock.

Other sites in the Buzz Media network include Buzznet, Celebuzz, SocialiteLife, What Would Tyler Durden Do, Just Jared and Absolute Punk.