Are Women's Magazines Getting Too Sexy Online?

Traditionally conservative magazines like Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal and ParentsCosmo have let their hair down online to the point where their web content is more than Delish. Advice on spicing up your sex life has found itself on those magazines’ sites.

On the one hand, this seems like savvy web strategy: everyone from Miley Cyrus to CEOs knows that sex sells. And the success of magazines like Cosmo attests to the fact that women want to find that information from a reliable source. So writing about sex problems and how to solve them will lead to more unique visitors and page views of the site, along with increasing brand awareness. Great, right?

But advertisers would disagree.
MediaWeek reports that this new sexy content does not sit well with advertisers or older readers looking for a simple decorating tip:

“Some marketers are sensitive to their ads appearing near risqué content of the sort found on the women’s sites, and some buyers found a disconnect between the online content and the publications’ chaste reputations. ‘It doesn’t seem to fit [with] holiday recipes and how to organize your closet,’ said Roberta Garfinkle, svp, director of print strategy, TargetCast.’”  

“While some believe editors have more leeway online, others said advertisers don’t relax their standards for the Web. ‘Controversial content always raises eyebrows,’ said Brenda White, senior vp, publishing activation director, Starcom USA. ‘It’s still a concern online.’”

The article doesn’t cite a perfect solution except to say that print and online have different goals: the former’s is to sell ad space while the latter’s is to bring a younger audience to the brand. But Ed thinks such a divide is not ideal, because in the perfect journalism world, the web would also be a source of revenue for magazines.

What do you think, Edsters? Are you more likely to read the magazines mentioned above online or in print? Do you like the new sex-focused content on their websites? Were you surprised to see such saucy articles on their sites?