John Battelle Talks to Performancing about FM Publishing
Over the holidays I had a chance to talk to John Battelle of FM Publishing, a new but much discussed blog ad network that's currently in beta. FM has a whole bunch of high profile bloggers working with it already …
Context & Ripple Effects
This interview extends a conversation this site was already having about new distribution models for online publishers — Matt McAlister sketched a new content distribution plan at the end of November, and now John Battelle gives Performancing an on-the-record account of FM Publishing, his ad network for blogs, which the piece describes as much discussed and currently in beta.
What makes FM notable at this stage is who has already signed on: the confirmed reporting has a roster of high-profile bloggers working with the network before it has even left beta, meaning Battelle is trying to aggregate scarce, brand-name blog inventory rather than long-tail traffic.
First-order effects
- The high-profile bloggers already in FM's beta effectively outsource their ad sales to a specialist representative, gaining pooled negotiating power they could not get selling individually.
- Performancing, whose readership is itself blog publishers, gets a direct account from Battelle on how a leading network intends to price and package blog advertising.
Second-order effects
- Competing blog ad networks now have to bid against FM for the same small set of top-tier bloggers, raising the cost of exclusivity across the category.
- Advertisers gain a one-stop buy across multiple respected blogs, which pressures them to shift budgets away from one-off placements with individual sites.
Third-order effects
- If the network model holds, independent blogs begin to behave like magazine titles — pooled inventory sold by a central house — and the durable business of blogging consolidates around whoever represents the best-known voices.
The trend: Blog advertising is shifting from individual blogger-to-advertiser deals toward specialized ad networks that aggregate high-profile blogs into sellable inventory.