Spanfeller Media Group, headed by former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, closed its first round of funding today for its first web venture, which will be a website about food, one of many verticals on the way. The name of this website: well, that's to be determined. The editor: TBD. You may remember Spanfeller's legacy at Forbes.com which included popularizing and exploiting the top-ten-slideshow-listicle format to goose pageviews.
Spanfeller apparently has recognized a huge need that the gazillion food websites out there just aren't fulfilling. From the press release: "SMG's first foray into online publishing will satisfy a very apparent gap in the ever-expanding food media segment... Our initial launch will realize the medium's full potential..." This "very apparent gap" they've discovered? Well that's also TBD.
This project will be no simple food blog, for the intention of this website appears to be the only big website in the online food scene. Back in June, Spanfeller told the New York Post, "In terms of really big soup-to-nuts food sites, there is no really big player out there."
A visit to the Spanfeller Media Group's website (see screenshot above, or a larger screenshot here ) is amusing because it looks like a domain-squatting website from the 1990s, but it does outline the "core" of the business: "Quality Content Creation; Digital Content Aggregation, Curation & Viral Interaction; Customer Acquisition; Online Advertising Revenue Generation." Yep, that sounds like a blog website thing.
For more Spanfeller, also see his editorial for paidcontent.org from back in February, in which he reveals his keen insight into the readers' minds: "Users want multi-media, they want non-linear navigation, and, most importantly, they want interactivity—but in most cases, they’re not getting it." Which means videos, links, and slideshows?
· Former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller Raises Money For Content Startup [Business Insider]
· All Food Media Coverage on Eater [-E-]
[Photo: iab.net]