Capital Cities/ABC and America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said they have formally launched the "Style Channel" within the AOL service. The new channel will combine the online features of AOL with the resources from ABC-owned Fairchild Publications magazines; including Women's Wear Daily (WWD), "W," and other fashion titles.

Margaret Ryan, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes the announcement is an important one for AOL because it pairs the two companies in a venture that will produce "original, made-for-online content." Last year, Newsbytes reported that AOL and Capital Cities/ABC, a division of The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS), will each own 50 percent of the new channel.

The Style Channel will offer daily cutting-edge fashion and lifestyle news, along with personalized advice from fashion experts. Other features will include real-time events like online chats, and up-to-the-minute celebrity gossip, officials said. The new area will initially include six separate networks that will focus on fashions, beauty and health, celebrity style, the models who wear the clothes, and industry news for insiders and junkies.

Advertising will also be offered on the Style Channel, including 1/3 screen billboards, program sponsorships, and special mini-sites within the channel that are built for advertisers and are updated on a daily basis, officials said.

Also in today's announcement was word of a separate deal between AOL's Enterprise division and Fairchild's WWD, to provide a private area for WWD, Ryan said. AOL members will be able to subscribe to the special area, which will contain a daily business newsletter about the fashion industry called "WWD Fashion Business News," for $395 a year.

Newsbytes previously covered the ABC/AOL teaming last year, following reports in the advertising and fashion press about the new area. At the time, officials said the new fashion area will be programmed similarly to a demographically-targeted television or cable TV network, while also including features unique to the online world. The partnership also may look at distributing the fashion channel's content to other new media platforms, including CD-ROM and the Internet's World Wide Web, an AOL spokesperson said at the time.

The new area is available on AOL at Keyword: Style, or Keyword: Style Channel. For those users who have the beta version of AOL's 3.0 client, a "Style" button appears in the "Channels" listing that, whe clicked, will take the user to the area, Newsbytes notes.

(Bob Woods/19960618/Press Contacts: Michael Doneff or Jacqueline deMontravel, Susan Magrino Agency, 212-957-3008; Margaret Ryan, 703-918-1625, or Deidre Wilkins, 703-918-2156, both of America Online.