Glam Media Hires Conde Nast Exec To Lead Living Channel

Fashion and shopping e-publisher Glam Media has hired Conde Nast executive Joe Lagani to lead its new Living channel as vice president and general manager. Lagani, formerly vice president, publisher for House & Garden, is tasked with launching and setting the strategic direction for GlamLiving.

"The Glam lifestyle is for women with a grown-up sense of style who want to reflect that in every area of their lives," said Lagani, adding: "It's clearly aspirational."

Lagani managed an aggressive reorganization of House & Garden last year, where he was responsible for all ad sales and marketing efforts.

"I will be the first to suggest that my background is not in the new media world, but I understand how businesses work," Lagani said.

Glam Media has aggressively pursued a number of growth initiatives since securing $18.5 million in venture capital late last year. (The site has attracted $30 million total, and is seeking an additional $200 million.) Along with branching out beyond fashion and shopping, Glam has its sights on growth through mergers and acquisitions, along with expanding internationally.

Clearly a company to be reckoned with, Glam Media now attracts more than 22 million monthly unique visitors stateside, and 35 million globally. The site is also now number two in Top 10 Women's Web properties, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Yet Glam has also been largely criticized by industry insiders for driving revenue by selling ads for partner Web sites, rather than for its own page views. The critics also take issue with Glam calling itself a content site, rather than an ad network.

Lagani, for his part, said he was aware of the controversy before signing on to Glam, and discounts the debate as a matter of semantics.

"It looks like much to-do about nothing," he said. "There are so many models in the media world today--One of the things that attracted me to Glam was its model.

"Many marketers are challenged to find online media opportunities which offer both environment and scale--Glam Media's distributed media model helps fill those needs."

Glam owns and operates a dozen women's fashion sites, and provides a showcase and ad platform for 380 small affiliate publishers, 300 of them one-person blogs.

And the model attracts a range of brands from Gucci and Donna Karan, to Estée Lauder, Target, and Procter & Gamble.

And along with Lagani, a number of other credentialed media executives have joined Glam recently. Last month, Glam hired Ralf Hirt, formerly DoubleClick's vice president of operations & strategic partnerships, as vice president, international, with the task of driving the media company's global expansion.

And in April, Glam hired iVillage executive Jennifer Salant to lead its expansion and business development strategy. Most recently vice president of operations and strategic partnerships at iVillage, Salant spent over seven years at NBC's female-focused Web publisher--charting its partnership efforts early on, along with overseeing secondary ad revenue, licensing agreements, and digital commerce.

Prior to his role at Conde Nast, Lagani served as vice president and publishing director for Meredith Corporation, where he oversaw the operational management of several business units including Country Home, the American Baby Group and Traditional Home.

In addition, Glam has named Erika Lenkert as the new editorial director of GlamLiving. Erika has written and edited for In Style, Travel & Leisure, Bon Appétit, and Food & Wine, Brides, Los Angeles Magazine, and San Francisco Magazine, among other publications.

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