Federated Media is an intriguing web 2.0 ‘advertising’ agency model.  It caters to Technorati 100 content developers (aka authors) — popular sites like Boing Boing, Cool Tools, Destructoid and Mashable as well as blogs like Guy Kawasaki’s: How to Change the World; Stowe Boyd’s /Message;  Fred Wilson’s A VC and Mike Arrington’s TechCrunch.

Yet the rumormill is wondering if John Batelle (founder of the Industry Standard and Wired) is, once again, in danger of premature solicitation.  He’s building what many feel (including me) to be an institution far ahead of its time.  It will be worth 100x more in a year because it’s not *just* monetizing blogs.  He’s developing platforms for brands like American Express Open and teaching us all what the next advertising model will be (hint: page views and CPM don’t enter into the conversation, but monetizing the Long Tail sure does).