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Months in the making, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia‘s online hub has been retooled with new search capabilities, 700 videos covering 15 years of her TV program and social media tools.  I spoke with Holly Brown, president of internet at MSLO (currently on a “working” maternity leave), as the relaunch began tonight; she insists this is more than a makeover. It is the first step of a major overhaul expected to be done by fall. The overall aim is to balance the site’s expert advice with more user content and community features.
A hint at MSLO’s future online direction is found in the new feature, SoMartha, where users can share lifestyle tips and their own “Martha moments.” Beyond fostering community, the channel has a sweepstakes component—users are invited to complete seven story templates tied to Martha Stewart categories such as recipes, wedding planning and organizing.
There’s also a change in navigation. The previous version was organized around brands, so users choosing the Living Channel would find that it was entirely separate in look and content from the rest of the site. Now, the primary navigation is centered around category or interest and relates more to other areas.
“Our next focus is on creating microsites, which are dedicated to a particular advertiser and yet, is still built into the total experience of the site,” Brown said. “We’ll continue to build those out over the year. The ‘So Martha’ site is an example of the direction the microsites might take.”
Brown provided an early demonstration of the site and it does seem very Martha. “Ask Martha” —the search engine—for “cakes” and the results can be viewed all at once or subdivided by recipes, videos or “our web sources.” Since the content is culled from all the magazines and other media outlets under MSLO, the constant problem was how to make it all manageable.
“Being able to save and organize content was the major goal this time around,” Brown said. “More personalization and more community features are the goal for the next one.”
Related:
-- @ MPA: Dennis Publishing And Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Promote Sites With User-Content
-- Martha Stewart Omnimedia’s Online Plans; New Online Head

J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, which is part of the University of Maryland’s Merrill College of Journalism, has distributed 10 $12,000 grants intended to promote the creation of news sites for under-served communities. The grants, called “New Voices” and funded by the Knight Foundation, will go towards embedding TV reporters in neighborhoods, networking among regional radio programs, and map the local impact of climate change. With the 2007 awardees, a total of 30 community news start-ups have been selected to receive New Voices funding from among 533 applicants since 2005. This year J-Lab received 105 proposals. The grant recipients will each be eligible for $5,000 follow-up grants next year if they successfully launch and supply matching funding.
A brief check on last year’s 10 grantees shows nine are still functioning, though at various stages, with only one project having stalled. Last year’s grant recipients received up to $17,000, with the $5,000 follow-up if they continued operating.
The list of the 2007 grant winners is included in the release.

The 43 million people who make up the U.S. Hispanic community are experiencing a web-usage gap, with just 56 percent saying they use the internet at all, compared to 71 percent of non-Hispanic whites, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center.
Among the key findings in the report, which was based on telephone interviews last summer with about 6,000 Latinos:
-- 78 percent of Latinos who are English-dominant and 76 percent of bilingual Latinos use the internet, compared with 32 percent of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults.
-- 76 percent of U.S.-born Latinos go online, compared with 43 percent of those born outside the U.S. Some of this is related to language, but the analysis shows that being born outside of the 50 states is an independent factor that is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.
-- 89 percent of Latinos who have a college degree, 70 percent of Latinos who completed high school, and 31 percent of Latinos who did not complete high school go online.
In its coverage of the Pew Center report, Mediaweek says that some surveys show that broadband penetration for younger Latinos is higher than for the general population, noting the relative popularity of broadband-video hubs such as Voy TV and Barrio305. The piece also claims that younger Latinos are gravitating to social networking and online video sites, namely QuePasa.com and MiGente.com, and particularly for mobile media in droves.
And while still relatively small, Mediaweek notes that the current sites that appeal to the population of younger Latinos offer a mix of Spanish- and English-language fare. Focusing in on the two-year old Barrio305, which reaches roughly 10,000 users a day with a mix of music videos and user profiles, the site’s core target is third-generation, English-dominant Latinos.
The changes within the Hispanic community appear to be more rapid and complex than even the Pew Center study suggests, all of which has served to make media buyers’ jobs more difficult. Fernando Espuelas, chairman and CEO of VoyTV, and founder of Spanish-language portal Starmedia: “This is the conundrum. Marketers say, ‘If Hispanics are consuming media in English, why use Hispanic sites?’ Yes, the demo is absolutely mainstream, but also appreciates being spoken to as Latino.” Pew Hispanic Center release. Complete report (pdf).