Former DoubleClick, Brightcove and Demand Media executives have formed a new startup service to help small niche publishers make money from the web.
RollUp Media has been started by former DoubleClick international president Ben Regensburger, former DoubleClick finance chief Jillian Gillespie and former Lucos CTO John Eikenberry, with angel funding from Songkick and Metacafe investor Peter Read and Nugg.ad co-founder Karim Attia, as well as founders.
“We noticed digital publishers, especially in Europe, were struggling to build digital businesses,” UK MD Rags Gupta, formerly Brightcove VP, tells paidContent.
“Niche sites may have websites, blogs and a Twitter presence but they don’t know much about SEO and monetisation.
“We have built a platform that covers all aspects of content: creation, distribution and monetisation.”
RollUp wants to offer a mix of freshly-developed and off-the-shelf technology to help small publishers improve SEO, Gupta says. Specifics on the service are so far short.
Last year, RollUp acquired a technology outfit called Feedtrace, whose software scans Twitter to serve up links on hot topics and tags.
It is using the technology to power niche aggregated content sites InstantPulp and ParentPulp, each testbeds, as well its other offerings on Away With The Kids and SimplyChateau.
RollUp also claims former Lycos, BBC, Glam Media and Demand Media staff amongst a team of 15, focusing on the UK and Australia. Anil Hansjee, who previously ran Google’s EMEA M&A operations, is on the board, along with ex DoubleClick CEO David Rosenblatt.