High profile advertising network Federated Media’s Chief Revenue Officer Chas Edwards has resigned, we’ve confirmed, and will shortly be taking a job at Digg with the same title. Thomas Shin, who Digg stole from Yahoo earlier this year, will report to Edwards.
Mike Maser, currently Digg’s Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer, will change his title to Chief Strategy Officer. He controls Digg’s marketing, business development, corporate development and community management groups.
This is a big blow for Federated Media. Founder and CEO John Battelle recently announced that he’ll be looking for a replacement to run the company, although he’ll remain active with the business. And Edwards, I know from personal experience, is the kind of guy who can sell ice to eskimos and get a sincere “thanks” as he takes their money.
Federated Media raised a big round of financing last year that valued the company at $200 million. Oak Investment Partners, which led the round, must be wondering what exactly they invested in.
Many of Federated Media’s partners have left the network. Digg left in 2007, followed by GigaOm last year. TechCrunch parted ways with Federated Media earlier this month.
Edwards will have responsibility for all revenue streams at Digg, which include some revenue from Microsoft (although that deal is largely over) as well as direct sales. The company is making a push towards profitability, they’ve said in past months. That will likely require about twice the reported $8.5 million in revenue that Digg generated in 2008. Edwards will certainly help them get there.
Update: The Digg blog post.