• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 5, 2007

Betting the Web has room for another women's portal, ad industry veteran Kate Thorp today formally unveiled DivineCaroline.com, the first of three female-oriented sites to be launched by her Real Girls Media Network this year.

Along with familiar content categories aimed at women's audiences such as relationships, parenting and style, the new site emphasizes Web 2.0 features including interactive publishing, personal profiles and deep linking.

A centerpiece of DivineCaroline is a proprietary online publishing system that allows registered users to submit stories, articles and reviews and select accompanying digital photos for posting to one of the site's nine content areas. The sections, from home & food to career & money, are overseen by a group of staff editors with professional backgrounds in journalism or publishing.

"We've created an entire platform for community and social networking in one centralized place," said Thorp, who left as president, digital worldwide at AKQA in January 2006 to start Real Girls Media. She first provided details on DivineCaroline in November when her new venture received $6 million in first-round funding from London-based investment firm 3i and San Francisco venture firm Walden VC--where Thorp started Real Girls as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

Among the initial display advertisers on the site are DoubleTree Hotels and Target. Over time, marketers will be encouraged to develop campaigns that integrate their brands with DivineCaroline's user-generated and professional content.

The site has also launched with profile pages from nonprofit organizations including Common Sense Media, Moms in Business Network and the Tug McGraw Foundation.

Thorp has said the site aims to fill a large gap between top women's portal iVillage and smaller parenting or other niche sites aimed at women. In market research conducted during development of DivineCaroline, she noted that most women "couldn't even name the sites they've gone to. They're bouncing around from site to site."

By packaging newer community-building Web features with a wide range of content tailored to women 25 to 54, DivineCaroline hopes to find its audience. With a streamlined design featuring muted tones, the site seems to be presenting itself as a more sophisticated, high-end alternative to iVillage. By year's end, Real Girls Media plans to debut two sister sites--one aimed at teenage girls, the other at women 18-25--that employ the same underlying software as DivineCaroline. Thorp declined to say which of the two would launch first.