Conversational media and marketing have a knack for transcending geographical borders. FM isn't going to let a little thing like the Atlantic Ocean stand in the way of progress, so over the past year we've grown our partnership with a great team out of the UK, Net Communities. The company was founded way back in 1999 and is one of Europe's leading specialists in connecting advertisers with influencers and enthusiasts online. Net Communities will introduce FM's portfolio of leading online brands to UK advertisers who want to reach highly engaged, conversational media audiences.

Glad to have you aboard, Net Communities!

Dave Winer has a good post about how talent - in particular, writers and "content creators" - have forever had a raw deal from corporations who profit on the back of the creators' work. Dave posits that this is about to change, thanks to many trends, including the commoditization of distribution, means of production, and audience aggregation (well, I may have added that last one).

I certainly agree change is in the wind, and started FM on the premise that independent creators of great sites on the web deserve not only the majority of the revenue fostered by their work, but complete control over their intellectual property to boot. Well said, Dave.

James has written up an amazing campaign we're working on with Dell on Facebook and beyond. Check it out!

Alison Marino officially joins the FM New York Sales team this week as a Sales Coordinator. Alison comes to FM after getting her start in online advertising at Viacom, MTV Networks. After leaving the industry for a bit, she realizes her passion for online media sales is where she sees her career taking off! Alison graduated from Rutgers University and currently lives in the Northern NJ area. In her spare time she enjoys being outdoors and being very active. She enjoys playing in a volleyball league year round and also assists coaching girls basketball during the winter season. Welcome to FM, Alison!

Friday night's 2007 Crunchies ceremony was a huge success, with Agence France-Presse calling it the "first glitzy Internet start-up love-fest in San Francisco since the Webby Awards began here in 1996."

Congratulations to all of the winners, and especially to FM partners TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOm and Read/Write Web for producing it. TechCrunch has all the links to the extensive media coverage of the event, along with video of some of the best moments -- including a memorable performance by Fake Steve Jobs accepting the award for Apple. Congratulations all!

Love the coverage from Ad Age here:

One case study: Federated Media and JC Penney teamed up to launch the Fall Shopping Guide, a collection of content from popular woman-focused blogs prominently sponsored by the retailer's Chris Madden Collection.

Earning subscribers
The site aggregated content from blogs such as Heather Armstrong's Dooce, The Mommy Blog and Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. JC Penney didn't have rights to review or influence content. The site launched mid-September; a few of the contributing bloggers mentioned it on their blogs, some did not. But traffic started to grow. Federated execs started to notice traffic coming from places such as StumbleUpon, a social-bookmarking site, and RSS readers, which meant people were beginning to subscribe to the content.

This all refers to a program we worked on with JC Penney and Ave A. It was a great example of how to do conversational marketing right.

Jay Schaefer joined FM on Monday as our Client Services Manager. Jay comes to FM after 10 years of working with media and internet startups. His broad based media experience includes planning and buying banner, email, search, & lead generation campaigns for consumer & b2b clients. Jay brings a passion for data driven marketing and relationship management to his role as account manager at FM. When not managing campaigns Jay enjoys relaxing with his partner and friends in and around San Francisco. Welcome to the family, Jay!

Michelle Manfredini joined FM this week as Account Manager in Client Services based in our New York office.

Michelle joins Federated Media from CNET, where she was a account coordinator in NY for the past year and a half . She graduated from St. John's University where she majored in Political Science and Communications with a minor in Business. Before joining the online media world Michelle worked in the cable ad sales industry where she worked for Scripps Networks, Time Warner and National Cable Communications. Welcome to the FM family, Michelle!

Matt DiPietro joins FM today as Marketing Manager. Matt joins Federated Media with more than 7 years experience in a wide variety of marketing and communications roles - most recently as a PR guy for Silicon Valley tech companies where he developed a particular knack for digital media and advertising technologies. When not in the office he’s likely on his way to, or on his way back from, the Sierra Nevada. He also likes to annoy the neighbors with his banjo. Check out some of Matt’s adventures at Sierra Alpinist.

Dave Morgan, who now runs AOL's Platform A, riffs on my concept of the second click. Worth a quick read.

Om Malik, a pal and FM colleague, had a heart attack over the holidays - the best kind, the one that let him live and recover and, I can only imagine, come back with a renewed zest for life. But wow, what a wake up call to us all. Get better soon, Om.

A very well put post by Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0.