Kara Swisher

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Federated Media Makes Another Buy: Foodbuzz

Federated Media Publishing, which recently bought a community platform aimed at parents, announced tonight that it was making another acquisition.

This time, it’s a site called Foodbuzz.

According to the site, which calls itself a “food blog community,” it has exclusive deals to sell advertising for 4,400 independent food bloggers, making it a top food property.

Foodbuzz has raised $1.75 million in funding.
FM declined to give any financial details of what it paid for the San Francisco-based start-up.

FM bought community platform BigTent earlier this month, as it seeks to create large networks of niche content to better sell premium advertising.

In an interview with BoomTown after the BigTent acquisition, FM CEO John Battelle said the move was to further strengthen its tools for both the advertisers and publishers it serves, especially to create better “content conversations.”

Battelle also said that the additions to FM’s offerings are moving it toward helping content makers and advertisers create more relevancy, well beyond simply serving ads.

Here is the official press release from FM:

Federated Media Publishing Acquires Foodbuzz

Combination creates the largest and best collection of independent food bloggers

SAN FRANCISCO–Federated Media Publishing (FM), a media company that powers the best of the independent web, today announced the acquisition of Foodbuzz, the leading online food property.

Exclusive relationships with more than 4,400 independent food bloggers allow Foodbuzz to reach more than 14 million unique users per month. Combined with FM’s premier food sites, including Serious Eats and Bakerella, the new offering is the best way for marketers to engage with top-quality audiences discussing food.

“There’s a reason so many people share recipes, watch their favorite chefs on TV and talk about where they ate last night,” said Deanna Brown, President and Chief Operating Officer of FM. “Food is a universal topic that everyone loves to discuss. With Foodbuzz, FM can invite brands into the very best of those discussions at significant scale.”

“When you look at the innovative display-ad units, content marketing and blogger outreach programs created by both of our companies, this combination is a natural fit,” said Ben Dehan, the Founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, who is joining the senior management team at FM. “The sales teams, product mixes and great bloggers from both FM and FoodBuzz belong together, and we can’t wait to put this new offering in front of the best brands.”

FM’s purchase of Foodbuzz comes on the heels of three other significant transactions:

• The acquisition of BigTent, the leading community platform for local groups, especially groups of parents.

• The acquisition of semantic-search technology from TextDigger.

• A partnership with the Clever Girls Collective to reach audiences on more than 1,000 top-quality lifestyle blogs.

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