TechCrunch is reporting that AOL has stopped paying its bloggers. It’s a bit unclear what the real situation is, and a recent update makes it clear that this situation does not pertain to Weblogs Inc, an AOL-owned blog network. What is clear is that bloggers who are in the business of creating great content deserve a partner who values their work as more than simple ‘inventory.’
From TechCrunch:

Recent belt-tightening at AOL is hitting its network of bloggers, many of whom are being asked to curtail their posts or stop altogether. Others are being asked to post for free, and are actually doing so in the hopes that they might save their jobs come August.

AdWeek covered Microsoft’s sponsorship of a new Boing Boing TV series dubbed Boing Boing TV World:

Through a deal brokered by Federated Media, Microsoft is underwriting episodes of a new Jardin-produced Web series, “Boing Boing TV World,” which gives snapshots of international cultures.
The deal is one of several recently struck between small Web-video producers and big brands looking to connect with consumers beyond mass-market video destinations controlled by major media companies. The hope is that the comparatively high CPMs paid for small audiences — combined with the time needed to create the programs — will pay off with a brand impact deeper and more lasting than just plopping a pre-roll ad in front of a piece of content.
While the Boing Boing deal includes standard in-stream ads touting Microsoft, it also provides a personal touch: Jardin wrote a “shout-out” thanking Microsoft for making the series possible. Such touches give small video productions a leg up on the mass-produced fare offered by big media companies, said Chas Edwards, publisher and chief revenue officer of Federated Media.

In an earlier post I pointed out an AdWeek story in which David Churbuck, VP of Global Web Marketing at Lenovo, discusses the social media strategy behind the brand’s Olympics campaign – a campaign we’re particularly excited about around here. More on the campaign here.
Churbuck takes up the subject again in a post of his own at www.churbuck.com:

First off, I am eating my hat on the efficacy of Federated Media and Facebook. I acerbically squinted at Federated’s FaceBook plays for Dell, and blogged a “we’ll see” note after listening to Federated’s founder, John Battelle, espouse the wonders of his ad network at an Ogilvy conference. Well, we’re just a month into the program and I can attest that it is working as planned… I won’t divulge numbers, but we’re more than 50% of the way to our target and the Games haven’t even started yet… at Federated, James Gross and Peter Spande have made believers out of me.

Thanks David!

Sacha joins Federated Media with 10 years of experience in online sales. His most recent role was Senior Product Marketing Manager at CNET Networks and he was an early member of the online sales team at The Industry Standard (welcome back, in a way!). Sacha was born in Hawaii, grew up in Singapore and has family spread out across the world. When he’s not working on developing and managing effective online media programs he enjoys watching the Red Sox win, playing tennis, reading history books and spending time with his wife and young son. Welcome to FM, Sacha!

AdWeek published a great story today on Lenovo’s social media efforts surrounding the brand’s Olympic sponsorship. David Churbuck, vp of global Web marketing at Lenovo, chimes in with some words of wisdom. From AdWeek:

In keeping with the ethos of the social Web, Lenovo is not hosting the blogs on its own site. Most athletes either had their own sites or established them for this project. Lenovo is adding distribution by highlighting the blogs on its Web site at www.lenovo.com/voices.
Lenovo has asked the participating athletes to show a “Lenovo 2008 Olympics Blogger” badge on their sites. Most have done so, said Churbuck. It isn’t asking for any mention of Lenovo products, he added.
“I don’t want to be in the position of telling them what to write,” he said. “It’s their blog, they can do what they want.”
The blogging program is complemented with a Facebook effort that lets users virtually identify themselves with their country’s teams. Federated Media and Citizen Sports created country applications users can add to their profiles. So far, more than 100,000 have been downloaded.
“A brand like Lenovo working within Facebook is interesting because that’s the nut that a bunch of people are trying to crack,” said Jeff Ma, CEO of Citizen Sports. “Most brands and agencies don’t even know how to advertise on Facebook. There’s still a lot of education.”

Check out the referenced Facebook app here.

Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, spoke at FM’s recent Conversational Marketing Summit about immediate threats to our industry from pending legislation that every online publisher should be following. Check out the video here.
The IAB sets the standards for online advertising and represents us all on legislative issues, and our own John Battelle is on its board. At the event, Rothenberg announced a new membership tier that lets smaller publishers join the IAB. This is a very important step for independent publishers and FM applauds the effort. In that spirit, John Battelle has offered to pick up half of the fee for all FM authors.

Susan has been posting highlights from Part 1 of John’s podcast interview. Lots of good stuff in here. John answers some very good questions from the likes of sales and marketing execs at LinkedIn, Accenture and more. Keep checking in with this for more.

Check out John’s thoughts on a wide range of issues as he chats with DishyMix’s Susan Bratton.
Episode 54: John Battelle on The Conversation Economy, Hairy World Issues and High School Musicals Part 1 of 2.

Michael Cohn, FM’s newest Strategic Programs Project Manager, comes to us from Fly Communications, where he created and ran the media planning, buying, and strategy department, and was an FM client. His extensive experience in the online space also includes time at CondeNet and Microsoft.

A resident of New York for four years now, Michael has also lived in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Kansas City. In his spare time, he writes an online marketing blog, Media Mandible and a movie trailer review blog, Trailers Undone. He has a master’s degree in cinema-television from the University of Southern California, and has also worked in Hollywood as a story editor and creative consultant. Welcome, Michael!