The newest site in the Mamamia stable, Debrief Daily, will be launching as planned despite publishing powerhouse Bauer Media launching legal action against the site's publisher Mia Freedman.
AdNews understands that the case was thrown out of court, with the judgement falling in Freedman’s favour. It is understood that Bauer had 28 days to respond to the judgement however that time has now lapsed, with Debrief Daily now free to officially launch this April.
The case was centred around Bauer having a website based in the UK with a similar name, The Debrief, with the case causing speculation that Bauer may be primed to launch the site here in Australia.
A Bauer spokesperson previously told AdNews that the publisher often looks to its international offerings to what it looks to bring to Australia, and emphasising that Bauer plans to launch a raft of digital platforms this year, pointing to the likely planned launch.
The publisher is ramping up its digital focus and just last week Bauer pulled its digital business into one global division – Bauer Xcel Media. The company will also be expanding on its digital women's network, which sees all of Bauer's female-targeted brands under one banner as a way to give audiences a single destination point and to better sell a bundled digital package to advertisers.
When announcing the new site last year Mamamia founder Mia Freedman told AdNews that she wanted to launch the new offering because she felt as if she was moving into the next stage of her life and mainstream media was no longer connecting with her.
“Mamamia came about from me spending 15 years in women’s media and there wasn't any media on any medium that was speaking to me and catering to my interests. So fast forward seven to eight years and it's now gone from a personal blog to a network of women's websites. There are three sites that we've done now and I'm starting to get that feeling again,” she said.
“You've got your first Gen Xer who is turning 50 next year, so Debrief Daily really came about to follow where the conversation goes next with women 40-plus.”
Last month Mamamia Women's Network announced that Shelly Horton will be the host and producer of its soon to be launched Mamamia TV.
In her new role Horton will create snackable TV-style content for the web as well as contributing to its written content.
Both parties declined to comment on the legal proceedings.
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