Glam, an online fashion and lifestyle publisher, has announced that it has raised $18.5 million in venture funding, which it plans to use for mergers and acquisitions.
Glam Media, which claims to have had 8 million unique users in November, has also announced a deal with Hearst magazines to add content from Marie Claire to Glam’s sites.
Glam Media’s network of sites includes more than 200 Glam-owned and affiliate partner web sites; GlamSpace, a social network for fashion and style; and GlamCentral, which ranks and searches fashion and style blogs.
This funding round was led by DAG Ventures, with input from Accel Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, WaldenVC, and Information Capital. CNET chairman Jarl Mohn is joining the board of Glam Media as part of the deal, which brings the total raised to $30 million.
According to John Cadeddu of DAG Ventures:
"Glam Media is at the forefront of a shift in digital publishing, and we are delighted to be backing one of the fastest-growing Web media properties. With over 50 percent growth quarter over quarter, Glam has created a highly desirable new Web 2.0 business model."
Valleywag points out that Glam’s claim of 8 million unique visitors is a little far-fetched. It quotes comScore, whose figures show only 3.8 million Glam Network visitors in November.
These figures also include traffic to Glam’s 200 or so associated blogs (some owned by Glam, some affiliated). Glam Blogs in the UK include hecklerspray.com and Shiny Media's blog network, which account for around 1.5m unique users per month.
Glam’s sites currently command relatively high CPMs for their ads, between $20 and $30 for static placements, so backers must feel that, with further expansion planned by Glam's network, their advertising revenues will justify their investment.
Further Reading:
VC investment rising to dotcom bubble levels
Graham Charlton is Editor at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin or Google+.
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ave a
7:45AM on 16th December 2006
The Gawker Article seem sto be written by a junior reporter who did not do any fact checking and to light- ValleyWag is about gossic- not the Economist.
Just the facts:
comScore Media Metrix October Numbers:
Glam Media: 7 million Global Unqiues, 3.1 million US uniques
comScore Media Metrix November Numbers:
Glam Media: 3.8 million unqiues Global (not done yet- % would indicate 9 Million)
I guess the days of "great american journalists" are dead- because you here in the UK believed what they said in a gossip rag- now how is different than our support for say Iraq??? Also- the days of checking facts- what happened? and lastly- do they still think US is the center of the world- so the 3.8 million is really what matters! huh? last time i checked- US was still 5% of web advertising, and UK is now 12%.
Please correct your article...
Director of Product Development at Econsultancy
12:57PM on 18th December 2006
Hi Ann,
Sorry, but which parts need correcting? We know all about Valleywag, but the figures quoted seemed in line with what other publishers were reporting (ClickZ / ZDNet / TechCrunch use the same comScore figures).
Cheers,
c.