Webzines merge for Automatic Media
Feed, Suck.com to create content for 'sophisticated users'
Feed magazine and Suck.com said Monday that they will join forces to create Automatic Media, a network of online content and services "tailored to the Web's most sophisticated users."
Automatic Media has secured financing in the $4 million range from such established media names as Advance Publications unit Advance.net and Lycos, which acquired Suck as part of its purchase of Wired Digital two years ago. Lycos has taken a 25% equity stake in the company.
Automatic Media has also tapped veteran HBO exec Lee deBoer as its CEO.
Company plans to line up several more sites to add to the content network and has already picked up an online alternative culture guide, alt.culture.
Combining that content under one roof will help bring more users for all the individual sites, said Feed co-founder Stefanie Syman.
"We began by envisioning a really exciting new platform that's a habitat for editorial content," Syman said. In doing so, "we'll be bringing together some very loyal communities that are really underleveraged," she added.
Automatic Media will also line up a range of services that have become typical on Web portals, including free e-mail, home page development, threaded discussion boards, news filtering and personal ads.
To keep costs down, all the sites that eventually join the fold will share a single back-office staff for advertising, tech support and administrative tasks. The company's backers insist, however, that each site will retain its editorial and creative independence.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense when you have these sites with 8 to 10 staffers to have an ad sales staff dedicated to one site," observed Syman. "The bottom line logic says, Put these together."
