• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 14, 2011

Mediabrands Ventures, the sprawling, entrepreneurial division within Interpublic's Mediabrands unit, has named digital publishing veteran Jason Weisberger to the new position of COO. Weisberger, who previously was COO of blog network and event producer Federated Media Publishing, has been working as a consultant for the past year, supporting Mediabrands Ventures CEO Matt Freeman, who says it was time to formalize Weisberger's role as the ventures division is poised to expand and diversify.

Freeman added that the appointment of Weisberger to oversee Mediabrands Ventures more than 2,000-person organization - about a third of Mediabrands 6,500-person workforce - is telling, because he does not have a traditional agency background, but instead comes out of the worlds of publishing and technology.

In addition to Federated Media, Weisberger has a long track record in digital publishing, and continues to actively serve as publisher of pop culture blog Boing Boing.

Freeman said Weisberger is developing a "platform vision" for Mediabrands Ventures that would enable products and services to seamlessly plug into other Interpublic organizations, or to exist as free-standing enterprises, and gave Mediabrands Ventures' Cadreon online audience-buying system as an example.

He said Cadreon is now full deployed across Mediabrands' other operating divisions, including Initiative and Universal McCann, as well as Interpublic's other agencies.

Mediabrands Ventures has ambitious goals, including the development of new advertising service models that leverage innovative technologies, as well as new products, some of which could be marketed independently from Interpublic's agencies.