• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, August 31, 2009 10:07 PM

In September Hearst plans to launch a site called Real Beauty, which will focus on makeup, hair care and other beauty topics. The venture is an effort by Hearst, publisher of Cosmopolitan, Seventeen and Harper's Bazaar, to create a one-stop destination for consumers who want to research and buy beauty products. It will be competing with a vast field of more specialized beauty blogs as well as sites operated by various cosmetics brands and retail chains.

Hearst is hoping a new Web site and growing interest in the Internet among beauty-products makers will translate into a fresh source of advertising. Users of the site users will be able to customize information so, for example, a woman with curly hair won't see articles about straight hair. The customized information will eventually be ported across the Hearst Network to sites such as Cosmopolitan.com and Redbookmag.com, as well as to select social networking sites like Facebook.

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