FM's had quite a summer, building out a new Automobile federation, and adding a great group of quality new sites in our existing federations. Below is a release that sums it all up.
But I want to call out the statement at the bottom of the release, as I think it bears discussion. The release states:
With the addition of these quality sites, FM will slow the pace of new Author recruitment in the coming months. The company has been fortunate enough to attract the interest of hundreds of web publishers, but, given the personal attention FM’s model delivers to each site, FM will focus on servicing existing Authors and evaluating prospective Authors with which it has already begun discussions.
In short, recent attention to FM, as I noted earlier, has meant hundreds of folks have contacted us in the past month or so, all with the goal of supporting their independent media site. We're honored by the chance to help them, but not at the expense of the folks we're already working with. I've been around this block a few times, and jumping at every opportunity is a fine way to lose one's footing.
As I posted on our internal Author blog:
It's clear we're hitting something of an inflection point in the business, and before we can grow our author base any more, we need to make sure we have the right processes in place to support that growth.
So while we have a number of great authors already "in the pipeline" who will be coming onboard in the next month or so, we've decided to hold off on courting new authors until we review how we bring folks on, what resources we need to marshall to keep you all happy, and, frankly, to let the current new crop of authors get fully integrated into our platform. Between surveys, ad codes, remnant programs, and the host of questions that come from joining FM, it will take time for the new folks to get truly settled in. Before we add more, we want to make sure you all are happy to begin with.
FM will be growing its author base relatively slowly over the next month or so, while we focus on taking care of those who are already with us. I'm pleased to report that last week we had our biggest week in sales ever, matching in one week what we did in one month just a few months ago. While I'm sure we'll have news on new partnerships soon, it's our job to make sure that our current partners are happy first. That's why we've decided to hit pause, and refresh.
WIth that in mind, I'm pleased to present the summary of a great summer's worth of work:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Federated Media Publishing Strengthens Business & Marketing, Adds Auto Federation
Welcomes Freakonomics, Make, Sphere, and Leftlane News, among many others
Sausalito, CA – September 18, 2006 – Federated Media Publishing (FM), the fast-growing network of author-driven websites including Digg, Boing Boing and Dooce, has grown to represent more than 85 properties and has formed a new Federation in the Auto category. In recent months, FM has welcomed dozens of talented authors running sites including the Freakonomics blog, Guy Kawasaki's Signum Sine Tinnitu, Henry Blodget’s Internet Outsider, the website companion to O'Reilly Publishing's Make Magazine, and blog search engine Sphere.
The latest additions strengthen the company’s existing Federations and establish a new one: Automotive. Initial sites in this burgeoning Federation include Leftlane News, AutoSpies, The Truth About Cars, Boompa, TopSpeed and Serious Wheels. With the founding of the Automotive Federation, FM has brought together more than 9 million monthly pageviews on these auto enthusiast sites.
Leftlane News is a leading source for automotive industry and vehicle news, while AutoSpies is the insider's guide to the world's finest automobiles. The Truth About Cars features stylish, no-holds-barred writing, and TopSpeed provides a space for car enthusiasts to read, learn and argue. Boompa is a social network and wiki for vehicle enthusiasts. Meanwhile, Serious Wheels has emerged as the premier online destination for high-quality collector car images.
Marketers and readers seeking witty, well-written dispatches on family life can turn to the latest additions to FM’s Parenting federation: Finslippy, Laid-Off Dad and Dad Gone Mad. These join Heather Armstrong's Dooce.com, which generates 2.4 million pageviews per month, and Danielle Friedland's Celebrity Baby Blog with more than 2.7 million monthly pageviews.
FM is pleased to add Hugh MacLeod's popular cartoon site, Gaping Void, and Dethroner, the new blog by former Gawker Media author Joel Johnson, to its Media & Entertainment Federation. Make, Cartoon Brew, Zoom In Online, TransBuddha, Mojizu and Hawaiirama also bolster the company's offerings in this category.
FM’s Business & Marketing Federation benefit from the additions of Freakonomics blog authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, whose book of the same name has been a New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller for well over a year. FM also welcomes Guy Kawasaki's Signum Sine Tinnitu, Dragon Head Almost Destroyed Me and Five Blogs Before Lunch, the winner of a Webby award for "Best Business Blog".
FM’s already formidable Technology and Tech Culture Federation is filled out by Henry Blodget’s Internet Outsider, Uncrate, Gear Live, LiveSide, Real World Technology and Mad Professor, which is authored by Boing Boing author Mark Frauenfelder. Technorati ranks Boing Boing, one of the first sites to join FM, as the most influential blog in the English language.
The advanced blog search engine Sphere rounds out FM's Momentum Federation, where it joins Digg, Fark, Reddit, Tailrank, Metafilter, and Newsvine.
With the addition of these quality sites, FM will slow the pace of new Author recruitment in the coming months. The company has been fortunate enough to attract the interest of hundreds of web publishers, but, given the personal attention FM’s model delivers to each site, FM will focus on servicing existing Authors and evaluating prospective Authors with which it has already begun discussions.
The complete list of sites recently added to the FM network, including URLs, is:
* Left Lane News - http://leftlanenews.com/
* Dad Gone Mad - http://www.dadgonemad.com
* Dethroner - http://www.dethroner.com (still in private beta)
* Internet Outsider - http://www.internetoutsider.com
* AutoSpies - http://www.autospies.com
* Dragon Head Almost Destroyed Me - http://www.dhadm.com
* TransBuddha - http://www.transbuddha.com
* Hawaiirama - http://www.hawaiirama.com
* Five Blogs Before Lunch - http://daveibsen.typepad.com
* Freakonomics - http://www.freakonomics.com/blog
* Gaping Void - http://gapingvoid.com
* Real World Technology - http://realworldtech.com
* Top Speed - http://topspeed.com
* The Truth About Cars - http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
* Sphere - http://sphere.com/
* Make - http://www.makezine.com/
* Live Side - http://www.liveside.net/
* Serious Wheels - http://www.seriouswheels.com
* Uncrate - http://www.uncrate.com/
* Guy Kawasaki's Signum Sine Tinnitu - http://blog.guykawasaki.com/
* Gear Live - http://www.gearlive.com/
* Mojizu - http://www.mojizu.com
* Zoom In Online - http://www.zoom-in.com
About Federated Media Publishing (FM)
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 so doing, we are creating federations of respected voices that prosper on their own terms. Current federations include Technology, Automotive, Business & Marketing, Media & Entertainment, Momentum, and Parenting.
More information can be found at:
http://federatedmedia.net/
Contact: Jennifer Charette
Phone: (415) 332-6955 ext. 113
