• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 6, 2008

Technology content network NetShelter Technology Media has appointed industry vet Patrick Houston to the newly created position of senior vice president of media and chief publisher.

Houston spent the past dozen years of his career focused exclusively on the Web at Yahoo, CNET, and ZDNet. He most recently served as vice president of content and programming at Yahoo, where for three years he oversaw the company's portfolio of lifestyle sites.

As a vertical ad network, NetShelter has grown from a dozen to 150 niche tech sites over the past two years.

"NetShelter's vertical network represents an approach whose time has come," Houston said. "If I were building Yahoo Tech or CNET today this is how I'd do it."

"No matter how big, how pioneering, or how prescient you are, no single entity can keep up with the creative ferment of the Web," he added. "What attracted me to NetShelter is the opportunity to turn the increasingly fragmented nature of the landscape into an opportunity for synergies where they're natural and needed."

In the area of vertical ad networks big media players including Forbes, News Corp., Burst Media and BET have all launched networks built around specific categories--business, entertainment, food or fashion.

The aim is to capitalize on the Internet's fragmentation by tying together like properties to offer advertisers greater reach in particular content areas. Large publishers expand their targeted inventory while "long tail" sites stand to gain more traffic and higher CPMs on brand advertising.

Prior to joining Yahoo, Houston served as editor in chief at CNET.com., where he oversaw the staff of editors across a wide range of product categories including computers, software, printers, mobile devices, and home entertainment systems.