Time to Say Good-bye, and Thanks
Three years ago, when John Battelle and Chas Edwards met with me for a cup of coffee across the street from the old Business 2.0 offices in downtown San Francisco, their company, Federated Media, was still in its infancy, and our company, Giga Omni Media, was little more than a dream. John, a long-time friend and a peer from the tech media world, asked me if I would sign on with his studio of talent and let them represent my then one-man effort, GigaOM.com, commercially. Naturally, I said yes. In the time that passed we had our ups and downs, successes and embarrassments. But we progressed and prospered together.
John now sits atop a gigantic company that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and represents everyone from BoingBoing to mommy bloggers like Dooce. And Federated Media has become more than just a studio for technology bloggers, but a leader in the conversational marketing movement.
Progress is often accompanied by a divergence of ideas and ambitions within partnerships. At Giga Omni Media, we have been developing a network that revolves around niche verticals. As our needs became more specialized, we sat down with the folks at Federated to try and figure out how we could continue to work together. But both sides quickly realized that instead it was time to wrap up what has been a successful business relationship.
Now we have teamed up with the IDG Group to represent the sales of advertising on our properties — seven today, and many more in the months to come. IDG has a growing blog ad network and I look forward to working with them. Of course, we will continue to supplement their work with our internal sales team, which has been instrumental in selling sponsorships for both our events and specialized weblogs.
Sure we are parting company with our business partners, Federated Media, but we are not ending friendships that have spanned two bubbles, many magazines and countless memories. Thanks to John, Chas, Jason and everyone at Federated for being part of our dream, and for working tirelessly on our behalf.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
You’re up there with the big boys now yourself Om, time for you to help the lil fella out maybe..? :)
Thanks Om, Paul and everyone at Giga Omni Media. We wish you the very best of luck!
Matt DiPietro, Marketing Manager, Federated Media
good luck and take care of urself.
I should have such problems… But, seriously, Om – you are a model of graciousness and tact. Attributes many of us overlook. Thanks for the reminder.
Hi OM, is this due to the scale IDG has as a commercial force or just a better deal?
Congrats anyway
I sense this post his heavier than usual on the diplomacy, Om.
You write glowingly: “And Federated Media has become more than just a studio for technology bloggers, but a leader in the conversational marketing movement.”
I gather that makes Federated Media rather important. But for the rest of us who don’t actually understand the above sentence, would you mind explaining in plain English what Federated Media actually does? Surely, it has little to do with the “conversational marketing movement” (whatever that is).
@Andrew Goodman,
I think it is not diplomacy but thanks to an organization which has helped us build a big portion of our business. It is called appreciation for their efforts. Conversational marketing is their way of describing specialized marketing and advertising campaigns around social media sites including blogs and services like Digg. You can find more details on their website. FM, is an advertising network and a publishing services provider.
Congratulations Om. Your blog network is emblematic of the influence shift from tech trade magazines to blogs, and now IDG is repping you — seems appropriate somehow.
Chris
@Andrew:
“One of the world’s foremost Google AdWords experts”, whatever that means…
hmmm Om .. 7 now and many more in the coming months…. facinating