Glam Media is no longer just for the ladies.
The 10-year-old digital lifestyle publisher is changing its name and focus in a bid to capture the 49% of the market it's been missing out on: men. Under the new corporate brand Mode Media, it will expand into new male-centric verticals including gadgets and cars, as well as other new areas like fitness and travel.
(Yes, I know women use gadgets and drive cars, but sites focused on those areas tend to be aimed at and reach mostly male readers.)
"It was a long, arduous decision," Glam CEO Samir Arora says of changing his company's name. The Glam Media brand will continue to exist as the umbrella for the company's women's fashion and beauty properties. Mode's audience of 250 million monthly unique visitors makes it the seventh-biggest media property in the U.S., according to
(Side note: There used to be a women's style magazine called Mode, which catered to "full-figured" readers. It shut down in 2001.)
The name change is only part of the new coming out of Glam....uh, out of Mode Media today. It's also debuting a new version of its platform, one that Arora says will allow it to become "a true ecosystem for professional content."
Built on top of Ning, which Glam acquired for $150 million in 2011, the new platform is aimed at giving content creators a place where they can share their work, get it discovered by readers and get paid for it. Arora likens it to Pinterest, but with better attribution and monetization for creators.
"The single biggest request I've consistently had is, 'You guys are great at helping us make money on content. Why can't you help us in other parts of our business?'" Arora says, noting that Glam has paid out $200 million to content makers over the last five years.
"If we wouldn't have bought Ning, it would have taken us another four or five years to build this."
