Four years ago this past March, I posted on this site announcing “The Start of Something.” That thing became Federated Media, and if I can show a bit of parental pride, what we’ve managed to accomplish in four short years is pretty extraordinary.

In that post I demonstrated my proclivity for predictions, and in this post, I’m announcing that one of them is going to come true. Back in 2005, I wrote this:

I’ve learned what I am good at – starting things, getting them to a certain size. I don’t do so well at running ongoing businesses where the expectation is that lots and lots of money should be made. I find that a bit uninteresting (though others of course find it fascinating), and should the company get to that stage, it’s best to let the professional managers take over, whether that means selling … or bringing in someone who lives to manage media properties. I want to be upfront about that with everyone I might work with, so there you have it.

In the four plus years since I wrote those words, FM took off – and we indeed did grow to the size where major investors understood the opportunity in front of us. But one thing has changed, in a very significant way. There is almost nothing I find uninteresting about running FM. In fact, I find it so fascinating, I plan to intensify my focus on this company in the coming years.

Back in late 2004, before announcing the company, I wrote the first business plan for FM. It projected $20 million of revenue in year three. The company beat that number handily – by nearly double, in fact. But with great growth comes new phases of corporate life. After funding FM very lightly, and building the company on cashflow and a few million dollars of early investment from the New York Times, Omidyar, and Panorama Capital, in April of last year FM closed a $50mm investment from Oak Investment Partners. It was our belief, which our investors share, that our thesis of dramatic media industry shift was proving out, and it was time to lean into the opportunity and create a company that leveraged the “rest of the world” of quality social media – the world beyond portals like Facebook, MySpace, Google, MSN, and Yahoo.   

But with great opportunity comes great work. FM exists at the locus of an ecosystem consisting of publishers, marketers, partners and readers. We exist to serve this ecosystem, but we are also of course served by it, and none of FM’s success could have happened without the amazing efforts of everyone involved.

It’s time to take it to the next level. FM is no longer a scrappy startup, and while its leadership team is deep and experienced, we’ve come to the conclusion that to take the company to the place we all know it can go, we need an additional leader on board. So today, I’m announcing that I’m officially launching a search for that position. It used to be you did this in private, but we live in the world of social media, and one of FM’s mores is transparency. I want to honor that value today.

So let me be clear: I am in no way leaving the business. This new leader – the title will depend on the person – will be responsible for running the business – taking all reports and managing to our plan – but he or she will be working very closely with me.

So why now, and what will I be doing going forward? In order to take FM to the next level, it’s essential that I intensify my role working with our major clients, thinking hard about where the media business is going (a fascinating question), and evangelizing the market in which we operate. I currently spend about half of my time doing this, and my clients and partners demand I double down. It’s where I need to focus, to be sure, but those of you who know me will recognize it’s what I want to do as well.

Last year alone, FM put nearly $25 million in the pockets of independent creators on the web, ranging from extraordinary one-person shops like Mighty Girl  to venture-backed startups such as Internet Brands. And while on the surface it seems that FM “sells ads for great sites,” our true work is far more complex. Media businesses are complicated beasts, in particular the best ones. We’ve built an extraordinary technology platform and workflow process that unites publishers and marketers so as to create truly valuable media programs. Along the way we’ve helped create and define the practice of conversational marketing, and we’ve been responsible for scores of first and best practices in the field.

I’m extremely proud of the work that got us here, and in particular of the team I work with so closely every day. And I can’t wait to get started on the work ahead.