FACTS
When I want to know how a company is structured, who owns it, and other basic facts about it, I go to government filings that all corporations have to file. Bloomberg captures the essence of these filings in their research snapshots. This snapshot of SheKnows, LLC is available here. BlogHer is not listed, as it was purchased by SheKnows in the autumn of of 2014.
The CEO of SheKnows is Philippe Guelton. He previously served as COO and Exec VP of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc. A huge publisher of magazines and books that is now owned by Hearst Media. BlogHer is now playing with the big boys.
Samantha Skey serves as President and Chief Revenue Officer of SheKnows.
So what happened to the women who founded, nurtured, and saw BlogHer along until it was all grown up? Well, last December Lisa Stone, Co-Founder and CEO left BlogHer. She wrote A Toast to Building Movements and Challenging the Status Quo on BlogHer last October to announced her departure. She is still associated with the corporation/conference as a member of the BlogHer 16 Advisory Board.
Jory De Jardins is also on the Advisory Board of BlogHer16 but has left the company of which she was also one of the co-founders, and for which she served as President of Strategic Alliances, according to a post she published on Linkedin, Why Mommy Bloggers are not Magic Beans. The article is well worth a read per her assessment of the women’s blogging world. She is listed as SVP, Global Strategic Alliances, on SheKnows Media team page.
Elisa Camahort Page has transitioned from Co-Founder and Chief Operating Office at BlogHer to Chief Community Officer at SheKnows Media. BlogHer is still her baby.
But then you probably knew all that if you have been around the blogging scene and BlogHer for a while.
SCUTTLEBUTT
Now for the scuttlebutt you were hoping to find here… Well there isn’t that much given the fact that SheKnows which was headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, and still has offices there, is now run from New York where Guelton and Skey have their offices. Glassdoor.com is the place to find out such stuff and hear insider grumblings from the Scottsdale staff about New York management.
My only real concern about the current version of BlogHer a la She Knows is what may be shaping up to be an “all things to all people” strategy. That was my first reaction to the announcement of a 13 year old prodigy DJ who will be spinning at the BlogHer closing party.
The “gone Hollywood” assessment is in the wings, but I will reserve judgement about The Pitch – which is sorta like A Reality TV Show for Content Creators – that will be produced live at the conference.
The Femvertising Awards look quite interesting. They wrap up a week or so after after the conference.
I have to say that I am wondering what I will find at #BlogHer16. I did not attend last year. So this will be the first BlogHer Conference I will attend after BlogHer became a brand.
Many of my midlife friends will not be attending the conference this summer as they feel that ROI isn’t large enough for established bloggers. As someone who closely follows shifts in women’s culture, I think I will have a great time observing one of the vortices of change in our rapidly evolving women’s culture. I will share what I find out about how the female content creator community is being served by new media moguls.