Glam Media announced that they have secured an additional $84.6 million to be used to fund its rapid international expansion, its luxury, wellness, and living categories, build an online celebrity style channel, and perhaps add a men’s lifestyle channel. The funding is also set to be used for strategic acquisitions in four areas: the international media space, global content anchor properties, networks or media ad-focused companies, and technology providers to help the company “build out [its] ad platform for display, video, targeting and placement,” says Arora. (via Folio). While there has been considerable controversy around Glam’s traffic assertions (is it a sham?), Hollywood Reporter reports that according to the omScore’s MediaMetrix, 44 million unique visitors view Glam-operated or partner sites every month. In the U.S., Glam claims 25 million unique visitors a month, compared with 17 million for NBC Universal’s iVillage.com: The Woman’s Network. For PR professionals, Glam’s expansion offers untold new opportunities and spaces to raise visibility for clients, as well as a host of new media relationships to deveop and best practices to define.

With the expansion of new media, public relations is faced with a host of new opportunities and challenges. Example: with so many niche publications, online channels, and overload of information, is the value of media coverage declining? To date much of online PR strategy has focused on securing blog editorials that mimic those in print – How might public relations serve its clients better?

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San Francisco Fashion and Merchant Alliance is looking for members and Board of Directors alike to come on board. SFFMA is a non-profit round table forum supporting the emerging indie fashion industry in the bay area to promote healthy economic relationship between local merchants and fashion designers. The Board(s) has responsibility for the overall stewardship of SFFMA.

It has a duty to protect the long-term interests and direction of the organization, safeguard SFFMA’s assets and to practice due diligence in its decision-making. The most important job of a board is supporting the executive director to ensure that excellence is maintained in carrying out the organization’s mission, goals and objectives. Board areas of discussion: * Leadership * Management (including initiative and follow-through) * Planning (mission and vision, assessing needs) * Program implementation * Fiscal reporting & budgeting * Fundraising * Communication and public relations * Professionalism