OMG! Those well-versed in Web slang will recognize the initials as a short form of “Oh, my God!” The Yahoo-owned site does its best to elicit that same response from readers with aggregated news and just-released photos from sites across the Web, in addition to OMG! original feature articles.
Fans clearly responded to the celebrity gossip site, which underwent heavy marketing in its opening days in 2007, logging 4 million new readers during the first 19 days of the site’s launch. After getting its feet wet, OMG! started attracting an average of 8 million monthly readers, catapulting it quickly into the top five celebrity gossip Web sites soon after its debut.
Up-to-the-minute feeds make OMG! one of the most frequently updated gossip sites on the Web, with a rolling news feed scrolling new headlines that change every few minutes. Feeds from US Magazine, “Access Hollywood,” The Associated Press and Reuters news service ensure that no breaking celebrity news escapes the OMG! main page.
Marketing info for the site makes a point of advertising that OMG! is “not so super-mean,” setting it apart from some of the celebrity Web sites that seem to dislike anyone famous. OMG! reports on gossip and news, but without the snarky commentary, which users can provide for themselves, especially in the comment section after registering for an account.
OMG! hosts several blogs on its site that do feature original articles and commentary, such as “A-Line,” which dishes on Hollywood beauty and fashion, and “Goddess,” which focuses on celebrity moms. The music blog, sponsored by Pepsi, weighs in on the music world with gossip about singers and musicians.
Some have criticized OMG! for aggregating news rather than providing original content or generating news stories by tracking celebrities and securing original interviews (like competitor sites such as TMZ), but numbers show that readers are still flocking to sites that gather news rather than make it.
