Are we moving to a post-blog world? [Netly News]
After months of speculation, my old buddy John Battelle confirmed today that his ad-network-for-blogs company, Federated Media Publishing, got a $50 million investment. The Sausalito, CA.-based startup sells ads on behalf of nearly 150 blogs, including such heavy hitters as BoingBoing, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider and GigaOm. This C round of funding reportedly gives FM a $200 million valuation. Way to go, John!
Most people outside of the Bay Area don't realize how big a deal getting funding is these days. But winter is coming—the recession—and startups of a certain maturity are looking to put on a little fat to survive. From the largest to the smallest, this generation of Web 2.0 companies is hunting for cash. I've had conversations with bosses of places that are really profitable now, and still they're trying to lay in some dough...
FM, in fact, says its been in the black since last September.
With the rise of new kinds of social media, I wonder if we're starting to move into a post-blog world. Blogs, after all, are starting to seem very old world—maybe too much like print publications in their platform-oriented, uni-directional approach. The fact that they're published online and have obviated a number of ancient media conventions—news cycles, expensive distribution, even embargos—only goes so far. Is Battelle worried about the media world quickly moving beyond blogs?
Nope. This round of funding will help FM move into other forms of new media—which, it's already begun to do.
"It's not not that it's post blog," he told me, "but that there are so many other types of 'media properties.' There are evolved blogs like TechCrunch and the like, and there are media properties that act like applications." He mentioned, for instance, Digg, and two Facebook applications, Watercooler and Graffiti Wall, as being examples of the latter. FM reps the latter two.
I've always loved hearing Battelle do the vision thing. And I always think he's wrong. But he's always right. He once asked me to be the editor of a new magazine he was starting, called the Industry Standard. I politely declined. ("He's cra-a-a-azy!") It went on to sell more ad pages in its first year of business than Fortune Magazine. Then, a few years ago, I remember going over to his house when he was ovulating his ideas for FM. I thought the idea was (kind of) whacked. Wrong again.