HGTV and Popular Mommyblogger create On-Air and Online Content Development
January 25th, 2010
guest blogger: Megan Jeffery
Heather Armstrong of dooce.com is the world’s most popular, and influential mommyblogger. She began her blog almost nine years ago as a single woman, and has since morphed it into not only a hobby for a stay at home mom, but as a career for herself, as well as her husband, Jon Armstrong who handles the business and tech ends of thier endeavor.
Armstrong weilds a signifigant amount of infuence on the web. She has used that influence not only to build her online business/presence, but also has been accused of a bit of bullying of the corporate world from time to time. She once complained about her Maytag washer on her blog until they fixed it for her, and gave her a new one to boot, which she donated to a Salt Lake area charity.
Armstrong has over a million and a half Twitter followers (as well as a contract with Suave) and has recently been offered the opportunity to work with HGTV. Obviously HGTV understands just what Armstrong has to offer in the way of advertising and influence to the mommyblogger community. She brings a lot to the table - she understands implicitly how social media can create a network that becomes a business, so helping a televison network, really a business develop it’s online network (TRIBALIZATION!) will be second nature to her.
Below is the press release from HGTV:
Heather Armstrong to Begin Partnership Activities in Spring 2010
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ — HGTV has signed Heather Armstrong of dooce.com, recognized as America’s most popular “mommyblogger,” to an exclusive programming development deal in which she will work with HGTV’s online and on-air production teams to create innovative convergence programming for the network.
“We are thrilled to have Heather join the HGTV family,” said HGTV president, Jim Samples. “Not only is she one of the world’s best known bloggers and parenting writers, with a unique and hilarious voice, she’s also a talented designer and photographer. She’s clearly a great fit for us and our audience.”
Armstrong will play a starring role in HGTV’s social media-driven audience engagement initiatives, while continuing to blog at dooce.com.
“I am thrilled to be partnering with HGTV in the upcoming year and have been a huge fan of the network for many years,” said Armstrong. “In fact, I spent the first three months of my second child’s life watching every episode of Curb Appeal and Designed to Sell, and now if called upon I could stage a house within an inch of its life. I’ve been looking to grow my business beyond its online presence, and having been approached by other media brands before I can confidently say that there is no better partner than HGTV to help me take this step.”
The network plans to unveil the details of Heather Armstrong’s HGTV platform in spring of 2010. Viewers and online users can get more information on HGTV.com/Heather, Facebook/HGTV.com, and via Twitter at HGTV.
“There are numerous opportunities by which Heather’s many talents will come to life, and we’ve been collaborating with her on a menu of them,” said Samples. “We think that both her audience and ours will be excited by what we have in store.”
About HGTV
HGTV, America’s leader in home and lifestyle programming, is distributed to more than 98 million U.S. households and is one of cable’s top-rated networks. HGTV’s website, HGTV.com, is the nation’s leading online home-and-garden destination, which attracts an average of more than 4 million unique visitors per month. For more information, visit www.HGTV.com.
About Heather Armstrong
Heather B. Armstrong of dooce.com is widely acknowledged to be the most popular “mommyblogger” in the world. She has more than 1.6 million followers on Twitter, and was recently named by Forbes Magazine as one of the 30 most influential women in media, along with Diane Sawyer, Kelly Ripa and Oprah Winfrey. She has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and she’s appeared as a guest on Oprah, The Bonnie Hunt Show and CNN. Armstrong is the author of the 2009 New York Times bestselling book, It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita. Armstrong lives in Salt Lake City with her husband, Jon Armstrong, their two young daughters, and two dogs, Chuck and Coco.
