I'm thrilled to report that Federated Media Publishing, the company founded by Boing Boing band manager John Battelle, has just received a $50 million minority investment from Oak Investment Partners. This is huge news for FM, a company that handles ad sales and other publishing services for Boing Boing, Ars Technica, Dooce, and a slew of other sites.
I don't know much about venture capital, multiples, or valuations. But I do know a little about blogging, and I've met quite a few of people over the years (some well-intentioned, some, er, less so) who think they know the secret to successful online publishing. Turns out, they're almost always wrong. John and his incredible team at Federated Media, including Jason Weisberger, Chas Edwards, and many other folks, not only get business, but they get blogging too. That's a very rare combination.
John's been part of Boing Boing since 2004, back when "conversational marketing" was just a riff in the back of his mind and FM didn't even exist. In the years since, John and FM have enabled us to focus on what we love doing–sharing Internet esoterica, anomalies, and curiosities with you–and grow beyond what we ever imagined possible when BB was just a photocopied 'zine. We're proud to be part of the extended FM family. Congrats to Federated Media!
