Glam Lands Top Yahoo Ad Exec Josh Jacobs
In 2009, Glam’s growth rate was up 50% in display revenue, during a time when many of its competitors were seeing negative growth (Yahoo, which is the leader in display ads, is down 15% and iVillage/NBC is down 20%). CEO Samir Arora attribues Glam’s success in part to its very high engagement rates, with visitors spending much more time at Glam properties than they do at sites on iVillage or Conde Nast (see the table below).
The company hasn’t come through the downturn unscathed — they had some layoffs and performance cuts — but Arora says that some of their alternative measures like reducing executive pay helped prevent heavier losses. Now things are looking up: Glam turned profitable in September, and Arora says that the company will be profitable for all of Q4.