"Glam stands for significant reach with a high degree of engagement by women in Germany and around the world," said Ralf Hirt, CEO of Glam Media Germany and VP International. "With Fantastic Zero and Brash, we can now further expand our reach with male audiences. More than ever, this means marketing solutions that cater to the strong demand from agencies for premium advertising environments that appeal to men and have significant reach at the same time. The team at Fantastic Zero has created a highly successful business model, which we will roll out in other European countries in the future."

 "After reaching number one for women, Glam Media is expanding to target men with the acquisition of Fantastic Zero," said Glam Board member Dr. Marcel Reichart. "Glam Media now has even broader reach for its innovative technology and digital marketing solutions."

 Fantastic Zero sites cover categories like movies, entertainment, comics, technology, hardware, and gaming.  Partner sites include Cineastentreff, Comicgate, Gamenews, and Sport2.

 Glam says it is focused on expanding its Brash Media brand with the acquisition. Fantastic Zero Founder and CEO Aric Austin has been appointed "the man for men" at Glam Media Germany. 

 Financial terms have not been disclosed.

Glam Media, one of the newfangled content and advertising networks assumed by many industry observers to be vulnerable to financial meltdown, says it still hasn’t seen any marked decline in online display advertising. Yet, to be cautious, it is slashing salaries by moving to a system called “variable pay.”

Glam may be being cautious, and who can blame them, given the amount of doomspeak regarding the industry, but we continue to see evidence of growth. For example, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)showed us that the third quarter was the second highest of all time with Internet ad revenues reaching nearly $5.9 billion. The IAB makes up 86% of online advertising in the U.S.

eMarketer recently showed that while growth is projected to slow in 2009, it is still growing. It says online ad spending will reach 25.7 billion in 2009, which is 8.9 percent over the $23.6 billion that will be spent in 2008, although it did predict 14.5 year-over-year growth for 2009 back in August.

As far as small businesses are concerned, Ad-ology has released some survey results indicating that over a fourth of them plan to spend more on advertising in ’09, and another 60% plan to spend the same as this year. And with regards to online advertising specifically, 69% intend to spend more or the same next year.

Interestingly enough, participants in that survey did not seem very interested in rising trends in new media. 77% do not use online video, 83% do not podcast, and 82% do not use mobile advertising.

The development is noteworthy because, as we all know, Google’s something of a big deal.  On the less significant side of things, Glam put out a strangely incomplete and error-ridden press release to celebrate the occasion ("Adair holds an MBA from and a B.S. from the .").

 Michael Adair

But a few details are apparent.  Adair’s LinkedIn profile fills those blanks with Harvard and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, for example.

As for why he’d leave a successful company with a $155 billion market cap, Adair hinted at an interest in growth, stating, "I am excited to join Glam Media’s executive team as we leverage Glam’s vertical network model that it is ripe for expansion.  Glam’s focus on creating the right network model for display advertising makes them one of the most existing companies in media today."  (Substitute "exciting" for "existing" to get at the intended meaning.)

Anyway, a hat tip goes to Dean Takahashi, and with red pens in hand, we’ll keep an eye out for further Google departures and Glam developments.