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Valleywag
John Battelle, Federated Media's founder, has several reasons for hoping that Microsoft's "people-ready" campaign, and the attendant controversy, will fade away quickly. First of all, some of his affiliate publishers, such as Gigaom's Om Malik, have realized they're not comfortable endorsing marketers' slogans, even if the exercise is given the progressive-sounding name of "conversational marketing." The concept, to which Battelle has fixed his ad network's star, could quickly be seen as a fancy word for editorial corruption. But Battelle, the closest Silicon Valley gets to renaissance man, has more riding on conversational marketing than Federated's high-price ad campaigns for companies such as Microsoft and Cisco. The former Industry Standard founder — author of The Search, a well-respected account of the rise of Google — is working on a new book, on a revolutionary new paradigm of marketing. Battelle tells Valleywag he's still figuring out the book, but one title bandied around, we hear, is this: The Conversation.
John Battelle's risky conversation
John Battelle, Federated Media's founder, has several reasons for hoping that Microsoft's "people-ready" campaign, and the attendant controversy, will fade away quickly. First of all, some of his affiliate publishers, such as Gigaom's Om Malik, have realized they're not comfortable endorsing marketers' slogans, even if the exercise is given the progressive-sounding name of "conversational marketing." The concept, to which Battelle has fixed his ad network's star, could quickly be seen as a fancy word for editorial corruption. But Battelle, the closest Silicon Valley gets to renaissance man, has more riding on conversational marketing than Federated's high-price ad campaigns for companies such as Microsoft and Cisco. The former Industry Standard founder — author of The Search, a well-respected account of the rise of Google — is working on a new book, on a revolutionary new paradigm of marketing. Battelle tells Valleywag he's still figuring out the book, but one title bandied around, we hear, is this: The Conversation.
Comments
this is not really a comment on Battelle, but you have to be pretty crazy to take your focus away from the Web to publish a book, in my humble opinion.
after i left news corp./fim, i started writing my 3rd book on the whole "context is king" theme and realized it was such an opportunity that i launched a company around the theme.
unless battelle is being offered insane money - and i don't doubt he might after the search - i'd view this as a mixed blessing and focus on FM instead.
i don't see you nick writing too many books these days, after all ;)
@ashkan: On the other hand, you could argue that I shouldn't be writing this site. It's one of our smallest; it has little economic potential; and much to alienate potential partners and competitors. Writing a blog is absolutely exhausting. But it is good fun, and has given me a few ideas I wouldn't have otherwise come up with. Battelle's book might do the same: think of it as a marketing vehicle for FM.
true be that. but when wired writes "gawker media could fetch $100M" - true or false - it reinforces your rationale to a) conceive of this blog, b) edit/write it, c) invest in it to grow it etc.
this one is strategic, it puts gawker media right in the middle of the bankers and financiers that could make wired's claim - no matter how lofty on the surface - go from concept to reality.
i should personally spend 100% of my time on watchmojo.com, yet i spend a good % of my time on the hipmojo blog (1700 posts in 17 months, mate!), why is that? i've always said it: "yes, it's fun, i learn a lot, but it was, is and will be strategic."
you have a great vehicle in VW in that it balances everything else that is out there (Rafat's PC, Arrington's TC, Om's GigaOm).
Battelle's chosen a different route, to build the ad network, it's not perfect, but it ain't bad either.
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