After Makeover, YouTube Channels Begin to Roll Out

Amir Efrati for Wall Street Journal December 6, 2011

With YouTube’s redesign last week, the stage was set for the Google site’s big bet on professionally-produced video “channels.” Now here come the channels.

On Tuesday, KinCommunity, a women’s-oriented lifestyle channel run by a company called Deca, went live with videos on food, fashion, parenting and personal stories. With its mission to celebrate the “simple artistry of everyday life,” KinCommunity features short clips including advice for moms on how to dress after having kids, a mini-documentary about a mother who uproots her American family and moves to Tuscany, and a video that shows people how to make coconut chocolate macaroons.

“We want to be the big online brand for women over 25,” says Deca CEO Michael Wayne, who started the company in 2007 and previously launched sites including Momversation.com, HerSay.com, and ParentsAsk.com...KinCommunity will produce three new videos a day. “We want to give women a moment where they can get away and experience something beautiful and take two minutes to themselves,” Deca’s Wayne said. Unlike other new YouTube channels that will feature or be tied to well-known personalities such as Brooke Burke, Madonna and Jay-Z, KinCommunity won’t have any brand name celebrities so that it can focus on “being authentic, real and accessible,” Wayne said. On-camera talent will include women who write popular blogs or Deca’s own vice president of programming, Beth Le Manach, and its creative director, Eileen Levinson.

Read more