• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 29, 2009

Chas Edwards, Federated Media Publishing's co-founder, publisher and chief revenue officer, is defecting to the social news site -- and a member of Federated's publisher network -- Digg.com.

"In the coming weeks I'll be joining some old friends and business colleagues at Digg, to be its publisher and chief revenue officer," Edwards said in a blog post on Friday. Edwards did not return calls for additional comment.

Pete Spande has been promoted to senior vice president of sales. Since 2007, Spande has led FM's East Coast sales organization. He will work with Josh Mattison, the company's SVP West Coast Sales, on strategy going forward.

The move comes at a time of broader transitions for Federated Media, whose co-founder and figurehead John Battelle recently announced plans to give up his role as CEO and look outside for a successor.

In January, the Sausalito, Calif.-based company cut staff as part of a strategic shift toward "conversational marketing" at the expense of traditional display ads. Federated -- which runs advertising across a network of 150 sites -- laid off seven of its 90 employees, mainly from its display ad department.

"We are realigning much of our staff to support the marketers and content creators who make these programs sing by expanding our Strategic Programs and Major Accounts teams," Battelle said at the time.

Regarding Digg, Edwards said: "It's still the early days for figuring out the models that bring brands into conversation with the Digg community."

"Advertising doesn't perform for the advertisers if it doesn't also resonate with the audience," he added. "It succeeds only when it enhances the product and the conversation among those audience members."

Digg is expected to remain part of FM's network.