This morning, Conde Nast "launched" Brides.com, a new portal that combines content from Brides, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride magazine (why a once-in-a-lifetime event has three monthly magazines from one publisher is beyond me, but most thing wedding-related are).

The news was broken via the New York Times (here) and several smaller outfits, resulting in what is sure to be a bevy of traffic and links. My question is, what is it about Brides.com's launch that deserves this publicity? Some answers:

• The publisher is a huge player - Condé Nast
• A public relations agency with great connections
• Smart marketing that let them "launch" a site that has actually been in existence (and serving up similar content) for years
• Aggregation of fairly good content from an authoritative source
• Modern fascination/obsession with wedding related information

The beautiful part is, they're already indexed, already heavily trafficked and almost sure to avoid the sandbox. NYTimes.com (and IHT.com, who also ran the article) aren't directly linking to them, but the publicity buzz generated by the article is sure to get them even higher on one of the most competitive online searches in the retail field.

Lessons to learn from Brides.com's success include:

• Hire the best PR agency you can afford
• Target a market the media loves to talk about (or angle it that way for them)
• Let a major media publication "break the news" for you
• Leverage authoritative players in the market to deliver some (or all) of your content
• Don't skimp on design - professional and beautiful sites are "newsworthy" in and of themselves