FM/Parenting, a "metaweblog" representing FM's dozen or so parenting sites, is launching today. It's edited by Asha Dornfest and features excerpts from the best voices in parenting, including Amalah, Celebrity Baby Blog, Dooce, Finslippy, and Parent Hacks, among many others. Our release is below. If you're a parent, you'll want to grab this feed!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Federated Media launches new weblog highlighting popular parenting bloggers

Sausalito, CA – July 28, 2006 – Federated Media Publishing (FM), the fast growing network of author-driven websites, has launched a parenting “metaweblog” (at www.federatedmedia.net/parenting) that highlights the talented voices of the authors in its new Parenting federation.

As parents turn to the Internet for new sources of advice, lore, and connection, weblogs devoted to parenting topics continue to mushroom in their popularity and reach. “These blogs represent parents’ real voices and experiences,” says Bill Brazell, FM’s Director of Author Services. “They attract large and highly devoted audiences because they are sharp, honest, and engaged in open conversation with their readers.”

“At FM, we follow voice,” says John Battelle, founder and Chairman of Federated Media. “And that led us to the creation of our Parenting federation. We are partnering with some of the most popular and respected parenting blogs on the Web, and this new site will give readers a window into the extraordinary talent of these voices.”

The FM Parenting Metaweblog will feature excerpts from the following blogs (to date):

• Amalah (www.amalah.com)
• Celebrity Baby Blog (www.celebrity-babies.com)

• DadCentric (www.dadcentric.com)
• Dad Gone Mad (www.dadgonemad.com)
• Dooce (www.dooce.com)
• Finslippy (finslippy.typepad.com)
• Laid-Off Dad (laidoffdad.typepad.com)

• The Mommy Blog (www.themommyblog.net)
• Paper Napkin (papernapkin.typepad.com)

• Parent Hacks (www.parenthacks.com)
• Suburban Bliss (www.suburbanbliss.net)

About Federated Media

At FM, we believe great voices attract great audiences. We're in the business of supporting those voices, by connecting them to great marketers, as well as providing a suite of services that let authors focus on what they do best: make compelling media. In doing so, we are creating federations of respected voices that prosper on their own terms. Current federations include Technology, Small Business, Media & Entertainment, Momentum, and Parenting.

More information can be found at:

http://federatedmedia.net/

FM Parenting Metaweblog: http://www.federatedmedia.net/parenting

Contact: Jennifer Charette
Phone: (415) 332-6955 ext. 113

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I'm very excited to announce that Pamela Parker, formerly managing editor of ClickZ, will be joining FM as manager of author services, starting in August.

Pamela is well known in the marketing industry as an author, blogger, industry vet and all around great person. Find out more about her at her site The River, or peruse her amazing catalog of stories at ClickZ. Her last story for ClickZ is here.

But Pamela is more than a writer, she's a great manager of talent, and that's what her new role at FM is all about - taking care of our growing list of authors. We are at nearly 75 authors now, and Pamela couldn't be joining us at a better time. Pamela has been covering the Internet since 1998, when she graduated from Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University (she worked at the seminal @NY after graduating). Plus, she's a new mom - her first child recently turned one years old. Welcome aboard, Pamela!!!

How not to have a conversation about marketing in blogs, courtesy Jeff Jarvis....

It's never fun when a successful partnership implodes, and it's really no fun when it does so in a very public manner. The ongoing RocketBoom story is the talk of the blogosphere today, with public airings of private letters, charges, responses, and even offers of employment running around.

As someone involved in the business of representing talent (both production and on air, which reside in equal portions at RocketBoom), I'd say the lessons here are worth mentioning: Take a deep breath, don't say anything you might regret, and for goodness sake, don't leap at the first (or even tenth) offer made by anyone.

Andrew and Amanda are both talented individuals who built a very valuable brand, and who own it outright. Thanks to the way the media world is reshaping, both of them can do it again, should their current disagreement fail to resolve. There's no need, anymore, to presume the only way to make a living is to work for someone else. Especially when you have already proven that very fact once.