Glam Media Readies Male Version; Tries 7 Percent Solution, Cutting Workforce By 14 Jobs
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Glam Media, the women's fashion and entertainment ad net, has had a lot of activity lately. It's now prepping a men's channel and ad net with the working title CodeBlue, Venturebeat reports. The content will be comprised of in-house posts and videos in addition to bringing material from outside. The channel is being readied for a November launch under a different nameCodeBlue. NBC/*News Corp.'s* Hulu, *Sony* Music and MTV are rumored to be signed up as content partners and Glam is said to be talking with other media companies as well. Venturebeat is uncertain as to whether Glam will own CodeBlue completely or if this is to be part of a joint venture.
This comes as Glam is cutting 14 jobs, or 7 percent of its 200-person workforce. While Valleywag attributed the cuts to over-spending and the ad slowdown, Glam CEO Samir Arora said that the cuts were part of a routine review of its operations heading into Q4. Arora added that the layoff numbers were in line with what the company did last year around this time. Venturebeat also cites an unidentified source who says that the cuts are also being done to get EBITDA profitability in its "core business" by the end of the year. To help achieve that, Venturebeat's source says that the executive team and founders volunteered to take at least a 20 percent reduction in compensation, with Arora reducing his by 50 percent. Meanwhile, the company boasts that it's actively hiring in a number of areas, including sales, product management, engineering, and marketing.
Glam has made some high-profile hires and acquisitions over the past few months, designed to promote its expansion, as well as raising $84.6 million, with $64.6 million in a fourth round venture funding and $20 million in revenue-based debt financing. Glam reportedly set a revenue target of $100 million this year and set about buying UK online ad sales rep firm Monetise and then acquired German digital marketing firm Codex Media.
By David Kaplan