AOL has launched a new site downunser – Asylum.com.au
It’s aimed at “men”, and so covers such vital news as “world’s sexiest weather girls“, “10 worst tattoos ever” and as they say it:
If you’re looking for Weird Legos or elaborate sex toys — we’ve got it.
So it’s not the thinking man’s website, and sadly a New Zealand ad features on the front page:
What I’m missing by missing TV….
They also have some work to do – I clicked on the “science” link and got:
Actually I’m not sure whether that is just a teething issue or whether, as I suspect, nobody in the test market has ever clicked on that link.
Regardless – asylum, like a few other sites, is a localised version of a US site. I won’t be adding them to my reading list, but there seems to be a lot of call for this sort of thing.
Lance Wiggs 
Lance its a sad reflection of the world today. When I headed up Telecom’s New Media group I had responsibility for our advertising revenue and content mix on xtra.co.nz. The stuff that got the most hits was hollywood gossip, women’s day type stuff and any disaster story de jour that was voyeuristic. Pretty awful.
We had a couple of cracks at re-setting the editorial policy based on ‘the reason why people are looking at this stuff is because we put it up there’. This didn’t get anywhere for a bunch of reasons.
Kiwis are just as much a part of the global trash phenomenon as anyone else sadly
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I agree
Stuff’s Entertainment section is also a huge traffic gather but happily overall Stuff and NZHerald remain solidly news sites.
There is space for a couple of serious news sites, but it seems the remainder are tightly focused blogs (interest.co.nz) or lowest common denominator.
now, back to gofugly…..
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