• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 19, 2012

Gearing up to grow its media holdings, social-media marketer and ad network Say Media has raised $27 million in funding.
 
Led by new investor NEA, existing investors Shea Ventures and Correlation Ventures also participated in the round.
 
Say Media CEO Matt Sanchez said Thursday that the investment was more than enough to scale its media network, and continue to build its leadership team. “We are well-positioned to lead the publishing industry into a digital world," he said.
 
Just last week, the company said Kim Kelleher, currently publisher at Time, would be coming on board as the company’s new president in September.
 
Say Media was formed in 2010 with ad network VideoEgg's acquisition of blogging services company Six Apart. For a time, the combined company sought to compete with largely lifestyle-based vertical ad networks, like Glam Media and Federated Media.
 
More recently, however, Say has been focused on what it calls new publishing "experiences," like the one it created for Jane Pratt's women's lifestyle destination, XoJane.com, last year. In essence, the site attributed higher engagement levels to several Say Media innovations, including cross-promotion of relevant content, simpler user experiences and faster load times.
 
In addition to Kelleher, Say recently added Christina Cranley, former SVP at Martha Stewart and publisher of Everyday Food and Whole Living, as its vice president of sales for the East Coast.
 
What’s more, former CBS exec Sam Parker also recently came on as COO, while former Condé Nast exec Kourosh Karimkhany joined the leadership team as head of integration.
 
All together, Say currently boasts some 400 employees around the world.
 
Already building its portfolio of media properties, Say Media’s recent acquisitions include tech news publisher ReadWriteWeb and design “sourceboard” Remodelista.
 
The company presently owns and operates six properties, and has 13 exclusive publisher partnerships, including deals with Fashionista, Gear Patrol and Food52.

More broadly, the company claims a network of some 500 sites, with a combined global reach of 400 million Web users.