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by Teresa Martin

So Yahoo has launched its newest product - Shine. It is designed to appeal to what Yahoo says are the approximately 40 million women ages 25 through 54 that use Yahoo monthly. "Yahoo Shine speaks to you as a friend, telling you the secrets and tips to simplify your life," website editor-in-chief Brandon Holley is quoted as saying in the launch press release.

Something novel and new? A new direction for Yahoo, showing the path that will lead to its continued independence from Redmond?

Well, not exactly. It's more like, hmmm ... can you say Seven Sisters?

For those of you who, like me, grew up learning what it would be like to be a grown-up from the likes of Redbook, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Day, and Better Homes & Gardens, the shadow of the mass-market women's magazines looms large. Apparently it does for Yahoo too.

Publishing giants Conde Nast and Hearst are major contributors to the effort and much of the content is drawn from the sisters owned by these two companies. But Shine is different, they say. Uhm, how exactly?

Apparently it's different because the Yahoo and the magazines have discovered blogs, and blogs are the salvation for the giant pot of women-directed advertising dollars and Yahoo.

One more quote from the release:

Increasing the visibility of our blog content is a key element in driving additional traffic and converting passive readers into loyal fans," said Hearst magazines digital media vice president Christopher Johnson. "With more than 130 million visitors each month to Yahoo in the US, Yahoo will become a giant megaphone for us and allow Hearst's network of bloggers to elevate their voices and be heard by a much larger audience.

The result - which you can scan at http://shine.yahoo.com/ -- is somewhat like taking one article from every existing women's magazine - from Cosmo to Self to LHJ - and glomming them all together. Hey, I get it! It's a mash up! I can even hear the editorial budget meeting now: Sure, it's the same ole content, but by calling it a mash up we make it new and different!

Uh-huh. Which would explain how we get headlines like these from one moment of Shine time:

• Shine Chats with Jodie Foster [featuring glam Jodie photo with the headline]
• Attention Guys: We Want Less Sex, OK?
• Ever Been to a Theme Wedding?
• A Super New Fancy Bag Line Now Sold at Target
• Pizza for Breakfast? Yes!
• Pasta vs Pushups

I don't claim to know what women want, but I do have some ability to judge online innovation and this, dear reader, is not it.

I mean, there isn't anything wrong with it. I even clicked on the theme wedding which was a bloggy comment on the Kate Moss pirate wedding plans and an explicit request to readers to "tell us what you think." And another click from there and suddenly I'm at Men's Health Mag reading about "How to be the Perfect Guy for Her." But this is beach read/dr office wait time/salon hair processing time stuff. Easy little jellybeans, but can't we do better than this?

Content is really hard. Everyone thinks they can be an editor, but making the magic that turns some writing and some artwork and some moving visuals into a cohesive package that reflects a brand and delivers something that people want ... well, no matter what medium you work in, it is not easy and it doesn't just automatically happen.

Once upon a time, Yahoo did this well; it combined the strengths of online delivery and content-based applications with the human factor to create an effective place to visit. And then it veered off direction, seemingly forgetting why it worked to begin with. If Shine is a statement that Yahoo's direction is within its past, then that is a good statement regardless of how, err, familiar this implementation feels. But the quotes don't give me the warm and fuzzies about this.

"We're executing on Yahoo's starting point strategy by ensuring that women who start their day with Yahoo are offered a more relevant experience," said Yahoo Media senior vice president Scott Moore in that same aforementioned release.

Say what, Scott? Staring Point Strategy? Pasta vs. Pushups as a more relevant experience for starting my day? Or maybe this is just another way of saying that Microsoft is going to be your best friend.