WOMEN POISED TO FLEX POLITICAL MUSCLE ON INTERNET
(PRWEB) November 5, 1999
—They’ll Go One-on-One with Gore/McCain/Others at New Interactive Town Hall and Election 2000 Area on iVillage. com—
New York, NY, November 3, 1999—Presidential candidates interested in closing the gender gap have started lining up for no-holds-barred exchanges with women starting November 11. That’s when iVillage. com, the leading women’s network online, launches a new area and interactive Town Hall dedicated to Election 2000.
A hub where women’s issues reach more than 7.3 million women every month, iVillage is gearing up to be the nerve center of national political dialogue for women during the upcoming presidential election.
“We now have critical mass to make a difference in this presidential election,” said Nancy Evans, iVillage. com co-founder and editor-in-chief. “It will be to every candidate’s advantage to pay attention to our robust community.”
Town Hall Tuesdays
A veteran journalist and editor, Evans will lead the iVillage charge into national politics by hosting a series of live, online chats with the major
Presidential candidates. For these events, called Town Hall Tuesdays, Evans will incorporate questions submitted by women in the iVillage community in her exchanges with the candidates. The interviews will be broadcast live to women around the world via streaming audio.
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IVillage. com Election 2000
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“Any candidate wondering what women want will get the answers when they appear on iVillage,” Evans said. “And any woman wanting to know which candidate will deliver on the issues most important to her will find out through iVillage.” Already confirmed are Vice President Al Gore, November 16, 5:00 p. m. (EST) and Senator John McCain, December 7, 10:00 p. m. (EST). Other major candidates and key women in politics will also participate in future chats.
Issues Women Care Most About
Women’s attitudes on issues and candidates will be tracked weekly via the Women’s Opinion Polling Center—another key element in Election 2000 at iVillage. Tracking will continue right up to November 2000, making iVillage the daily go-to place for those needing accurate readings of women’s pulse on the candidates and issues.
“Women are constantly telling us how deeply they care about this election, and they have powerful ideas for political change,” Evans said. She noted that women now constitute 53% of the U. S. population and outvoted men 55.5% to 52.8% in 1996. “The gender gap has decided the past two presidential elections and that’s why the candidates need to pay attention to this forum.”
Other major components of the iVillage Political Area are:
· Candidate Match-O-Matic—users having a hard time deciding which candidate is right for them can answer an interactive quiz and then be matched with the candidate that best matches the users stance on key issues.
· Candidate Info Finder—a tool that allows easy comparison of candidates’ positions on major issues.
· C-Span/Virage Campaign Video Search—video search engine allows users to search for issues in candidate speeches and view them as video clips from the C-SPAN archives.
Other major components of the iVillage Political Area are (cont’d):
· Voter Education—candidate information, voting guides, how-to’s for getting involved, money in politics, and women running in 2000 (content from major nonprofit voting sites like the Center for Responsive Politics, the League of Women Voters, the Center for the American Woman in Politics, Democracy Net).
· Participation and Community—lively political discussion for women on message boards, personal home pages, weekly chats, "Debate of the Week" graffiti boards.
“All that iVillage has come to represent—providing a place where women together help one another find solutions—is now being brought to bear on Election 2000,” Evans added. “This is one of the most exciting endeavors we've ever launched.”
About iVillage. com:
IVillage. com: The Women's Network (http://www. ivillage. com (http://www. ivillage. com) and AOL keyword: ivillage) is the leading online destination targeted at women, providing practical solutions and everyday support for women between the ages of 25 and 54. iVillage. com is organized into branded communities that focus on issues of most importance to women and provides interactive services, peer support and online access to experts through 14 content specific channels and a shopping area. Content channels include Parent Soup, allHealth, MoneyLife, Career, Work from Home, Relationships, Diet & Fitness, Click!: Where Computers Make Sense, Pets, Travel, ParentsPlace, Food, Book Club and
Astrology, and are complemented by stores such as iBaby, iMaternity and Shopping Central. Established in 1995 and headquartered in New York City, iVillage Inc. (Nasdaq: IVIL) is an online media company, recognized as an industry leader in developing innovative sponsorship and commerce relationships that match the desire of marketers to reach women with the needs of iVillage. com members for relevant information and services.
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