Sinclair Broadcast Group is launching an online lifestyle magazine for the Washington, D.C. area.
The Baltimore Business Journal reports Sinclair’s ABC affiliate WJLA will oversee DC Refined, which managing editor Laura Wainman says will “provide coverage ranging from travel to sports to fashion to food to arts.”
Two Sinclair stations already work on Refined sites. Seattle Refined operates in partnership with KOMOnews.com and Cincinnati Refined partners with Local12.com, the website for WKRC.
Hunt Valley-based Sinclair took over WJLA in 2014 when it acquired Arlington-based Allbritton Communications Co. for $985 million and $50.1 million in working capital, according to Sinclair’s latest SEC Filing. Sinclair absorbed nine ABC affiliates in seven markets in total, as well as NewsChannel 8, an around-the-clock cable and satellite news station that covers the D.C.-metro area.
D.C. Refined would not be the first digital endeavor in WJLA’s history. Allbritton Communications introduced TBD.com in 2010, a Web-based source for hyperlocal news coverage that had a rocky lifespan and, after being taken over by WJLA soon after its birth, shut down operations completely in 2012.