AOL Launches New Lifestyle and Pop Culture Sites...

New York, NY – September 25, 2008 – AOL announced the launch of two new specialty sites, Lemondrop, http://lemondrop.com, which covers women’s lifestyle, and PopEater, http://popeater.com, which focuses on pop culture. The new sites continue AOL’s efforts to launch experiences targeted at specific audiences. Both sites provide consumers a forum to interact and engage in a fun and entertaining format about lifestyle and pop culture features. In addition, AOL announced that unique visitors and page views for its programming sites grew in August, the nineteenth consecutive month of growth. Unique visitors climbed 5% year-over-year in August, page views climbed more than 100%, and time spent climbed 49%, according to the August 2008 comScore Media Metrix report.

The new sites are supported by AOL’s digital advertising business, Platform-A, http://www.platform-a.com, which will identify key opportunities for advertisers and provide relevant display advertising and content-targeted links on the sites. 

“As people change the way they use the Internet, we are continually looking to offer more relevant content that targets people’s passion points,” said Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. “The new sites provide comprehensive engaging and interactive experiences and offer a place for consumers and advertisers to connect with programming that is truly dynamic. In addition, our continued growth in traffic and engagement show that this approach is resonating with online consumers.”

Lemondrop is a women's lifestyle site for the 18-34 year old woman that takes an informed, irreverent look at a range of lifestyle topics: news, relationships, fashion, pop culture, politics, shopping, humor and water cooler discussions of the day. The site informs, entertains and creates a community around weird news, snacks, dating tips, cool products and more. In addition to exclusive content, Lemondrop curates the best of the Web in the rapid-fire, conversational style of today’s twenty- and thirty-something women and invites readers to join in the conversation with their own perspectives. The site builds on the success of AOL's men's site, Asylum, http://asylum.com, which launched in December 2007 and has already grown to be the No. 1 men’s lifestyle site in the U.S. with more than 4.1 million unique visitors in August.*

PopEater is focused on pop culture and is AOL’s central location for entertainment news, where the day’s hottest entertainment stories, gossip items, celebrity photos and Hollywood trends are brought to life in an interactive experience. Previously, PopEater.com solely focused on pop music, but AOL has expanded the site to include all of AOL News', http://news.aol.com, entertainment coverage. With polls, videos, photos, compelling galleries and many other features and franchises, PopEater takes a snapshot of how the big story is evolving across the Web while offering pop culture enthusiasts a chance to react along with it.

Since last year, AOL has launched over 20 specialty sites, including Asylum.com, StyleList.com, BigDownload.com, Pixcetera.com, ParentDish.com, TheBoot.com, WalletPop.com and Urlesque.com.

Many of AOL’s programming sites are in the top three of their categories for unique visitors, according to August 2008 comScore Media Metrix. Asylum, http://asylum.com, Black Voices, http://blackvoices.com, Music, http://music.aol.com, and StyleList, http://stylelist.com, are all No. 1. Horoscopes, http://horoscopes.aol.com, Latino, http://latino.aol.com, Money & Finance, http://money.aol.com, Moviefone, http://moviefone.com, and Television, http://television.aol.com, are in the top two. Living, http://living.aol.com, and TMZ, http://tmz.com, are in the top three.** In terms of page views, Money & Finance, Health, http://aolhealth.com, Asylum and StyleList are number one in their categories, while Living, Moviefone, Music, Black Voices and TMZ are number two, and Television and AOL Latino are number three.

*  comScore Media Metrix, August 2008.
** comScore categories Black Voices, Horoscopes, Latino, StyleList and Asylum are custom built based on a self selected competitor list.

About AOL
AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S. and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.