Glam media

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Glam Media, Inc.

logo
legal form Incorporated
founding 2003
Seat Brisbane , California , USA
management Samir Arora ( CEO )
Number of employees 200 (2008)
Branch Online networks
Website www.glammedia.com

Glam Media Inc. was an American internet company headquartered in Brisbane near San Francisco . It was dedicated to topics such as fashion, health and lifestyle . With Glam Media GmbH it had a German offshoot that was founded in mid-2008 as a joint venture with the Burda subsidiary Burda Cross Media .

The website Glam.com (in Germany de.glam.com) was the flagship of Glam Media and consisted of numerous partner sites that were editorially managed and brought together in a front-end to form a platform with a uniform appearance.

At the end of 2008, the glam network in the USA had reached number 9 among web offers with 52 million visitors, and 110 million visitors worldwide. At that time, Glam was the front runner among the target group of women on the German-speaking Internet. Also related to Germany, Glam had 8.7 million visitors in November 2009 and was the fastest growing website after Facebook from January to November 2009 .

In 2014, Glam Media was renamed Mode Media . On April 1, 2016, Samir Arora was replaced as CEO by the former Glam Media Sales Director Jack Rotolo as CEO. On September 15, 2016, Mode Media abruptly shut down its operations. At the beginning of 2017, Mode Media was restarted in Japan with Samir Arora as Chairman.

History and business concept

The beginnings of Glam Media go back to the years 2002 and 2003. The key figure in the company has been the New Delhi- born Internet entrepreneur Samir Arora . Samir Arora, who initially worked for Apple Computer until 1993 with the development of interactive media, later founded the companies Rae Technology and NetObjects, which launched one of the first web design programs in 1996 with NetObjects Fusion .

A group of IT veterans who had worked with Arora at Apple Computer and NetObjects was joined by people like Carl Portale, the former editor of Elle and Harper's Bazaar , and Susan Kare , a screen designer who also worked for Apple and NetObjects .

The idea underlying the founding and the website to this day is to imitate the look and feel of printed magazines in order to attract the large user group of women. Market analyzes have established that there is a lack of internet offers specifically aimed at women, with women having three quarters of the purchasing power in Germany.

Another pillar of the concept is the bundling of numerous independent websites and blogs from partners, which are integrated into the Glam.com website and marketed through it. Conversely, Glam ads are acquired centrally and transferred “down” to the partner websites with a uniform appearance. In July 2008, Vice President Ralf Hirt, responsible for business in Germany, referred to Glam as a so-called “web hub”.

The theoretical background of this business model are marketing studies on the so-called “mid tail” or “ long tail ”, according to which there is considerable potential on the Internet in countless niches, here: medium-sized and small websites and blogs. With this model, glam media is located in the “mid-tail”, according to other sources also in the “long tail”.

In addition to the “suppliers”, there are their own editorial contributions, although fewer in Germany at the start of German-language offers.

Glam USA

In December 2008, Glam in the USA was ranked 9th in the range statistics for Internet offers with 61 million "unique users". In May 2008, Glam in the USA was ranked 14th of the most successful Internet sites with a reach of 41 million "unique users" Deals. In January 2008 it was ranked 28th.

After founder Samir Arora had provided start-up financing with his own investment company "Information Capital LLC", several rounds of financing organized by the relevant investment banks such as Bank of America and Allen & Company brought plenty of money into the coffers. The last round yielded another 85 million US dollars in addition to the previously invested 30 million. This resulted in a valuation of 500 million US dollars as early as February 2008.

Sales figures and reliable figures on profit or loss were previously only known through rumors, loss of confidential documents or forecasts by the company itself.

In 2007 and 2008, Glam Media recruited several high profile people from other digital and print media, including John Trimble from Fox Broadcasting Company and Joe Lagani from House & Garden magazine of the Condé Nast Group. In July 2008, Michael Adait, a high-ranking financial manager, was poached from Google .

The international expansion started in 2008 with Great Britain and Germany.

The business model of Glam Media led to heated discussions in the USA, not least because Glam had quickly overtaken competing offers like iVillage or AOL Living. In particular, it is controversial whether the traffic on the partner sites should be rated as Glam's own traffic, as ComScore does.

The discussion proceeds under the key words “Distributed Media” (translated by the FAZ as “Distributed Media Network”) and “Vertical Content Network”, both terms used by the representatives of glam on the one hand, or an advertising network ('ad network “) comparable to Google AdSense , as the critics see it on the other hand.

The media researcher Jeff Jarvis sees “the not even perfect” glam network as the prototype of a new media model: “a large audience can be reached quickly and at low cost”.

The advertising industry seems to be indifferent to the discussion, which is difficult for non-marketing experts to grasp, and analyst Greg Sterling also commented according to CNN Money : “Glam has the reach. So I can't quite see the meaning of the discussion about whether they are a destination or a network. "

Glam Germany

Glam Media GmbH was presented in July 2008 at Berlin Fashion Week as a joint venture with Burda Cross Media. The Burda subsidiary for digital media had already invested in Glam Media, USA, at the beginning of 2008, with a stake in the "single-digit percentage range" and had a (non-voting) seat in Glam for the Burda board member responsible for cross media, Christiane zu Salm. Supervisory board brings. In March 2009 it was reported that Burda is increasing its stake in Glam Media GmbH to 49% and is investing "a low single-digit million amount" for it. This also increases the stake in the American parent company.

Ralf Hirt, Vice President of the American parent company and responsible for international expansion, was appointed Managing Director of Glam Media GmbH. Ralf Hirt, who was born in Stuttgart, worked for DoubleClick before his glam engagement . At the start, Glam Media acquired the Munich agency Codex Media GmbH, whose founder Katja Dalhöfer was made sales manager in Germany.

The partners that Glam was able to win over in Germany for a start include fashion websites such as luxusbabe.de, burdastyle.com, deluxe-label.de, stylinrooms.de, several gossip sites, but also cultural offers such as fuenf-filmfreunde.de , the photo website danielawagner.com as well as cooking, food and eco offers such as gutekueche.de and.

In February 2009, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported that glam already had the greatest reach among the “women” target group on the German-speaking Internet. In the same report, glam partners had their say who reported "technical start-up difficulties", but also of advertising revenues that were "very high".

The turnover for Germany was given by Burda in March 2009 as "in the single-digit million range".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick Bernau: Women turn blogs into business. In: Women make blogs a business - Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, February 1, 2009, p. 37
  2. ↑ a b Holger Schmidt: “Publishers must think like Google”. In: “Publishers must think like Google” - Allgemeine Zeitung, February 3, 2009, p. 17
  3. ↑ Holger Schmidt: The pacemaker on the Internet. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 29, 2009, p. 15 ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / faz-community.faz.net
  4. ↑ Michelle Castillo: Glam Media Rebrands as Mode Media and Takes On Netflix. In: adweek.com. April 29, 2014, accessed September 30, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Mode Media Names Jack Rotolo as Interim CEO. Retrieved October 29, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Deborah Gage: Billion Dollar-Valued Mode Media Shuts Down . In: Wall Street Journal , September 15, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016. 
  7. ↑ Anthony Ha: Mode Media Japan lives on, with founder Samir Arora as chairman. Retrieved October 29, 2017 .
  8. ^ A b Claire Cain Miller: Pretty in Pink . In: Forbes.com . Forbes.com LLC. September 17, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  9. ↑ Glam Media. About glam. Our story. . In: Glam Media . Glam media. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  10. ↑ Juliane Paperlein: Glam is expanding strongly and planning male offshoots . In: Horizont.net . Deutscher Fachverlag GmbH. July 14, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  11. ↑ a b c Holger Schmidt: The network of women. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July 21, 2008, p. 17.
  12. ↑ Bill Mickey Miller: Glamorizing Brands . In: FOLIO . Red 7 Media, LLC. January 3, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  13. ↑ a b Nico Kunkel: Glam Media hits German girls . In: kress The media service . Haymarket Media GmbH. July 11, 2008. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  14. ↑ Glam Media. About glam. Our story. . Glam media. Archived from the original on August 26, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 24, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.glammedia.com
  15. ↑ comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties For December 2008 . comScore, Inc .. Archived from the original on January 18, 2009. Information: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.comscore.com
  16. ↑ comScore Media Metrix Releases Top 50 Web Ranking for May . comScore, Inc .. Archived from the original on July 29, 2008. Information: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 23, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.comscore.com
  17. ^ A b Holger Schmidt: Youtube and Glam are rising stars of the year. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 24, 2007, p. 21.
  18. ↑ Kevin J. Delaney and Emily Steel: Online Ad Networks Raise Big Money In Latest Efforts . Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
  19. ↑ Stephen Shankland: Glam Media snags Google exec . In: CNET News.com . CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. July 23, 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
  20. ^ Jemima Kiss: Leading US women's website Glam Media targets UK . In: guardian.co.uk . Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
  21. ^ Matt Marshall: Glam to sign $ 1 billion ad deal - and draws critics . In: VentureBeat . August 12, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2007.
  22. ↑ Paul R. La Monica: The Glam-orous Life . In: CNNMoney.com . Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company .. August 18, 2007. Archived from the original on February 25, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 24, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com
  23. ↑ Glam Media raises $ 85 million in private strategic financing . Glam media. July 11, 2008. Accessed July 24, 2008. After Christiane zu Salm left the Burda company later that year, she was appointed to the Glam Board by Dr. Marcel Reichart replaced.
  24. ↑ Holger Schmidt: "Burda increases share of glam". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 23, 2009, p. 14
  25. ↑ René Seifert: Ralf Hirt Glam Media . In: eLAB . Holtzbrinck eLAB GmbH. January 25, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  26. ↑ US women's portal starts in Germany . In: FOCUS Online . TOMORROW FOCUS Portal GmbH. July 17, 2008. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  27. ↑ GuteKueche.de. Accessed December 31, 2018 .
  28. ↑ naturkost.de. Accessed December 31, 2018 .
  29. ↑ US women's portal starts in Germany . In: Glam Media Germany . Glam Media GmbH. Archived from the original on August 12, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  30. ↑ Patrick Bernau: Women turn blogs into business. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, February 1, 2009, p. 37 .
  31. ↑ Holger Schmidt: "Burda increases share of glam". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 23, 2009, p. 14. What is probably meant is the annual turnover.