Federated Media finds its new leader — CondeNet founder Deanna Brown
Updated
Four months after Federated Media founder and chief executive John Battelle said the company was looking for a new leader, the Sausalito, Calif, startup (which sells advertising for more than 100 online publications, including VentureBeat) is announcing online media veteran Deanna Brown as its president and chief operating officer.
Brown was most recently the president of media company Scripps Networks. She also founded CondeNet, the online division of publisher CondeNast, as well as Powerful Media and… Continue Reading
Digg snatches top advertising sales executive Chas Edwards
updated
Digg, the site that ranks news stories, has hired highly respected advertising sales executive Chas Edwards to become chief revenue officer.
It’s a major blow for Federated Media, where Edwards was publisher & chief revenue officer. Edwards built up Federated’s sales team from scratch, closing the company’s first deal almost four years ago for about $5,000. Federated’s chief executive John Battelle two weeks ago announced he was searching for a new leader for the company. In… Continue Reading
Federated Media searching for a “new leader”
Federated Media, which sells ads for more than 100 blogs and websites (including VentureBeat), is looking for a new executive to run the company, founder and chief executive John Battelle said in a blog post today.
So is this a CEO search? Um, maybe. “The title will depend on the person,” Battelle says, but basically Federated is looking for someone who can manage the business while Battelle focuses on working with the major clients, and on… Continue Reading
Twitter madness comes to college basketball
Are you one of those people who won’t stop twittering about the NCAA college basketball tournament happening now? Here’s something for you. A site that lets you exchange tweets with other people who are watching the same tournament game as you. Called MarchTweetness — a Twitter pun on the colloquial “March Madness” name for the tournament (har) — it’s a partnership between advertising network Federated Media, Twitter itself, and advertising sponsor AT&T.
To get started, you… Continue Reading
Tweetie and Twittervision also featured on Twitter, but not for money
Earlier today we reported on what looks to be Twitter’s first real foray into making money: highlighted third-party sites on Twitter’s main web site. This evening, Twitter rolled out the first such deal with ExecTweets, a Twitter business executive site built by Federated Media and sponsored by Microsoft. But alongside that roll-out were two surprises: Twitter was also featuring Tweetie and Twittervision.
Tweetie is a third-party iPhone app; Twittervision is a third-party site that places tweets… Continue Reading
The business model begins: Twitter to promote FM and Microsoft-backed ExecTweets
If you’ve used Twitter’s website in the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably noticed a small rectangle promoting its widgets and Twitter Search. It’s no accident that it looks like an ad unit, because it actually is an ad unit. Shortly, it will be used to promote a new project by blog advertising network Federated Media, and sponsored by Microsoft.
That project is ExecTweets, the latest third-party site to use Twitter’s immense amount of data to… Continue Reading
Ad network Federated Media cuts 7 to restructure
Federated Media, a web site that sells and runs ads on more than 150 blogs and websites (including VentureBeat), is restructuring to focus on “conversational marketing,” announced founder and chief executive John Battelle — and that means job cuts. Specifically, Marketing Manger Matthew DiPietro tells me that means seven of FM’s 90 employees are being laid off today, almost exclusively from the display advertising department.
Those cuts aren’t surprising given the broader economic environment, and specifically… Continue Reading
Federated Media launches analytics tools, gets new partners
updated with more details, plus screenshot
Ad network Federated Media announced an analytics service for advertisers it hopes will help them better manage the growing perplexity of online branding efforts.
Federated is in a land-grab, trying to sign up publishers so that it can make money by serving advertising to them. FM gets the advertising, in turn, from large brands. By helping brands, FM clearly hopes to serve its publishers better. That’s the only way it can… Continue Reading
Race of the ad networks: Federated Media snags DeveloperShed’s 6M uniques
updated
Federated Media, the Sausalito, Calif. ad network that is in a land-rush to sell ads for independent publishers, has landed a big customer, the technology information site DeveloperShed.
DeveloperShed, part of Ziff-Davis Enterprise (a company that spun off last year from the decaying Ziff-Davis Media group, which filed for bankruptcy in March), boasts 6 million unique visitors and 27 million page views per month — with its readership consisting mainly of IT developers and programmers. Its… Continue Reading
Roundup: Six Apart launches ad network, Microsoft acquires Xobni…maybe and more
Here’s the latest action:
Six Apart evolves into an ad network — The blogging company behind MovableType, TypePad and Vox is offering a new advertising program which will give publishers more control over ads and revenue from their sites. The company claims its ad network will be better than the many others out there (with more popping up everyday) because it has the best experience with advertisements specific to blogs. The company also launched Six Apart Services… Continue Reading
Confirmed, finally: Online ad company Federated Media raises $50 million
This story will be very familiar to VentureBeat readers. Federated Media, a company that sells and runs ads on more than 200 blogs and other web sites, including this one, has raised $50 million from private equity firm Oak Investment Partners.
We’ve been reporting the gist of this story since last month, when a source told us that Sausalito, Calif.-based FM was closing a round with the pre-money valuation of $200 million. A second source confirmed… Continue Reading
Rumor: Ad network Federated Media raises $50M from Oak Hill Capital Partners, at $200M valuation
The ad network Federated Media has raised $50 million at a $200 million pre-money valuation from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, I’ve heard from a source, with investment bank Savvian helping to broker the deal.
A couple of weeks ago, a separate source told me that FM was close to raising $30 million at the same valuation. At that time, Valleywag reported that fundraising wasn’t as far along as my source claimed.
Federated Media isn’t… Continue Reading
ESPN: The worldwide leader in selling ads solo?
The world’s largest sports website, ESPN.com, is walking away from advertising networks, opting instead to sell ads directly. After recently leaving Specific Media, the site has turned down offers from other ad networks according to Mediaweek. This is the latest, and perhaps most significant story in a series of anti-ad network sentiment that has been traversing the Internet lately.
The key issue here is that ESPN.com feels it can sell the ad inventory on its site… Continue Reading
Ad network Federated Media close to raising $30M round, valued at $200M
Updated
Online ad network Federated Media, which serves Web sites like VentureBeat and hundreds of others with ads it gets from large companies, is close to raising a $30 million round at a $200 million pre-money valuation, according to a well-placed source.
In January, news leaked that the company had hired a small bank, GCA Savvian, and was trying to raise up to $50 million at a $125 million valuation, after having rejected a $100 million buyout… Continue Reading
Actually, social networks and their widgets are making money, thanks
Skeptics of social networks like Facebook and MySpace and their ability to produce value for advertisers gleefully pointed to more evidence last week: Google said its keyword advertising program on MySpace isn’t making as much money as Google had hoped.
“So what?” is the response I typically hear from the many people who have staked their business on making money through social networks , and who are making money. “I’m doing great and this information isn’t… Continue Reading
Federated Media blog ad network raises $4.5 million
[Updated: We've corrected the article below, based on further reporting. Regulatory filings about venture capital financings are tricky, because they're often late, and misleading. That's why the proposal to bring more transparency is a good one.]
Federated Media, a popular but sometimes controversial ad network for blogs, has raised another $4.5 million in funding, according to PE Hub’s read of the company’s recent regulatory filing.
Returning backers include New Enterprise Associates and Omidyar Network, according to the… Continue Reading