In April, Ben Huhs’ Cheezburger Network cut 35% of its staff as it looked to make the transition from desktop to mobile.
While the Seattle comedy network claimed it occupied the position of the largest humor site in mobile it was concerned that because ad rates are lower on smartphones they had not been able to re-position the business. At that time, Cheezburger had already raised $5 million (last December) following a $30 million round in 2011 and it has employed more than 40 people.
On September 5th, Cheezburger announced it had hired well-known Yahoo and Microsoft exec Scott Moore as its new president and COO. Moore, the former general manager of Microsoft’s MSN consumer portal and former senior vice president and head of media at Yahoo, appeared to be the guy to help lead the new charge.
All Things D wrote: “Moore will be “responsible for extending the Cheezburger brand, as it increasingly becomes a major player in the digital media and entertainment industry,” the company said in a press release. He will be in charge of product, technology, sales, marketing and account management, and will report to Cheezburger founder and CEO Ben Huh. Moore also became a director of the company, best known for its I Can Has Cheezburger? site.
Still, for all its attention, Cheezburger has yet to break out big. The site said it has more than 15,000 submissions uploaded daily, but only seven million unique U.S. monthly visitors in desktop and mobile combined.
Its Chief Revenue Officer has moved on. Todd Sawicki transitioned to a new role at the company when Cheezburger hired former AllRecipes.com executive Amber Dunn. At the time, Sawicki transitioned to the role of Vice President of Audience.
Cheezburger’s Scott Porad, its Chief Technology Officer, also departed in November of 2012. According to some observers, in spite of its acquisitions, more of its visitors are turning to other sites, Reddit among them, to get their daily fix of LOLCats and other humorous one-takes in spite of Cheezburger’s attempts to lure them with personalized curation pages. Comedy is fickle. We await the punch line! [24×7]
