OK! magazine's injunction on Hello! in the Douglas/Zeta Jones pictures row could become an anachronism if the hunger for showbiz gossip starts to creep into cyberspace. If your rival has beaten you to the big picture exclusive, all you have to do is publish online. At least that's the hope that Trinity Mirror executives are pinning on their new showbiz website, icShowbiz.com.
icShowbiz.com is the second of Trinity Mirror's portals within the ic network, and the first major marketing splash for any of the websites within the network. For Rebecca St Johnston, managing director of content, it's a case of filling a "gaping hole" in the UK market. "Sites such as Eonline and Mr Showbiz are immensely popular in the US. Some sites here focus exhaustively on film or music and others take the view that celebrity means the upper-crust celebrity gossip column circuit. But there hasn't been a compelling celebrity gossip site in the UK until now."
icShowbiz.com apes the successful stateside gossip sites rather than Trinity Mirror's newspaper brands. The 3AM column is there, with a Daily Record gossip section called Off The Record and Charlie Catchpole's TV reviews. There are bespoke columns from Jonathan Ross, therapist to the stars Susan Quilliam, and extra content from Mirror writers such as Jessica Mellor and Ian Hyland, and the People's Sean O'Brien. But, stylistically, icShowbiz.com borrows more from OK! and Hello! than the newspapers.
Jane Procter, managing director of gossip website Peoplenews, and Tatler editor for nine years, has also staked her livelihood on the belief that the desire for celebrity gossip in magazines and newspapers will translate to cyberspace. Procter is something of a celebrity gossip evangelist. "Research shows that 40% of people between 20 and 30 would postpone their own wedding to go to a celebrity party. They say because we haven't got a cold war on, all people care about is Catherine Zeta-Jones."
Procter says the "epiphany" that brought home the importance of the internet in the showbiz wars was the announcement of Madonna's pregnancy earlier this year. "I remember thinking 'If the Sun has got it and they're putting it on the web at 2.40 in the afternoon then they've obviously taken a calculated decision that it's not going to damage sales'".
St Johnston and Trinity Mirror Digital's managing director, David Clarke, feel that the ability to update the site 24 hours a day gives them a unique ability to capitalise on readers' interest in the day's breaking celebrity news.
"There's no limit to the amount of space we use," says St Johnston. "So if the Mirror is running a picture exclusive on a 12-page feature, they may only be able to run two pages of pictures - in which case we can run the rest." She adds that icShowbiz.com is prepared to fight for the right to break big showbiz exclusives on the site, at the risk of scooping the Trinity Mirror national papers.
It's worth noting that in spite of Procter's optimism about the market for celebrity gossip, Peoplenews axed its chief executive, Kelly Moulton, two editorial staff and several technical staff in November. Although she claims the venture is on target to make profit very soon, there is speculation that funding may have dried up.
Johnston also believes developments in mobile services will dovetail nicely with the growing appetite for gossip. "People waiting for the bus want something to fill in the time. Mobile is the ultimate time killer." Trinity Mirror's huge regional newspaper network, with access to the archives of papers including the Daily Record and Scottish Mail, the Birmingham Post and Mail, and Liverpool Echo, adds opportunities not just for compelling local content but for e-commerce partnerships. "If you want to find out where your nearest ATM is, or you want to book a table at a Chinese restaurant, mobile is excellent, and we can provide really compelling local content."
ic24 has excellent mapping and directory facilities, allowing users, for example, to look for cinema listings for their area, then search for an online map and directions for how to get there from their home address.
But whether this strategy will translate itself into online audiences, and more importantly, online revenues, remains to be seen. Ben Hedges, former head of sales for what was Trinity Mirror New Media and now managing director for new media training consultancy It Counts, adds that although celebrity is a big audience pull, it doesn't necessarily translate into cash.
"I can see there's a good argument for having 24-hour, constantly updated information about showbiz online. But at the end of the day, if I've got an update on what Posh and Becks are calling their next baby - so what? How are you going to make money from that? OK! and Hello! have built their success on appealing to very aspirational, lifestyle advertisers who aren't interested in online at the moment."
In the wake of high-profile dot.com failures many newspaper groups have retreated from previously bullish internet strategies, cutting back online operations to the point where many have little more than an online marketing presence.
And with the exception of Mega Star, now floating in a no-man's land in United Business Media amid speculation that it may be sold off, there's little competition from Trinity Mirror's tabloid rivals.
Trinity Mirror was the last of the big newspaper groups to jump into the digital fray. Earlier this year, it trumpeted a £150m investment into ic24, an ISP which aims to be the "people's doorway to the internet", a friendly, handholding service with a one-size-fits-all brand.
Last month Trinity Mirror unveiled the first of its long-touted portals, icScotland. The 16 promised when the investment was announced have dwindled to four, with icSports, icChoice and icRegional to follow next year. But after the spectacular rise and fall of Currantbun.com and the ensuing chaos of News International's digital strategy, the logic of launching another "welcome to the internet" portal is being questioned. Clarke defends the strategy. "We have to be able to provide everything we want in one set of sites," he says.
The silence from Trinity Mirror's key competitors in this space, News International and Express Newspapers, is deafening. No one from News International would speak to the Guardian about the company's online operations. But one anonymous News International executive is sceptical about Trinity Mirror's strategy. "I'd question the viability of any content-driven website relying on advertising revenue," he says. "News International's online presence is purely a marketing tool - we want to encourage people to buy the papers. The Trinity Mirror strategy is to create a new online brand and generate revenue."
Given News International's failure to capitalise on its early lead in online plus rumours that auction site Firedup.com and recruitment service Revolver.com are facing the axe, this could be seen as sour grapes. But people who know how advertisers behave online are also dubious about Trinity Mirror's approach.
Nick Suckley, managing director of digital media agency Beyond Interactive (formerly Media21) believes Trinity Mirror is missing a trick by failing to use its best asset - its newspaper brands. "You have to ask 'What does the Daily Mirror stand for?' and everyone will have a view on that. Instead they're saying 'Let's launch into a very competitive market with a product no one's heard of.' There's a lot of consumer goodwill towards the Mirror but they're not capitalising on it."
Clarke is adamant that Trinity Mirror has to look at the longer haul and invest in a coherent online brand. "If we went down the road of having newspaper branded sites all the sites would look different to the different sets of users," he says. "The demographics of the Mirror - which is our best-known brand - don't fit the demographics of online users. At the moment most users are ABC1, although that is going to change. The Mirror's audience is largely C2."
He adds that for Trinity Mirror's business model - split revenues from advertising and e-commerce but with advertising initially accounting for over 90% - it's important to be able to sell across a network of identically-branded sites. "We have seen from examples in the US that the bigger advertising and e-commerce deals migrate to the people with the biggest volume of traffic. Independent sites tend to struggle if you take them out of the larger mix."
He concludes that only when the network of sites is up and running will Trinity Mirror be able to make a decision on whether the approach has been successful, although he is adamant that the business will be in profit when the funding runs out at the end of 2002.
