Where do men fit in?

Women's ad network Glam Media — whose upward trajectory over the past two years has been enviable — announced plans to cut 14 jobs, or 7 percent of its 200-person workforce. 

The layoffs will mostly be confined to the sales department. But the news conceived speculation among observers that have followed Glam's rapid growth. "Wild spending, chaotic decisions, and mismanagement" may be among the reasons Glam needs to cut back, observes ValleyWag.

But Samir Arora, the "slick serial entrepreneur" who co-founded Glam, told VentureBeat a different story. The company reviews its workforce before the fourth quarter of every year, he said, and they long expected to make cuts.

"We recently had a reorganization to ensure a strong Q4 performance, to better reflect our expansion in key verticals and to acknowledge current market conditions," asserted EVP Scott Schiller of Global Marketing in an email to MarketingVOX. Arguing the cuts are "simply practical management and what well-run start-ups should do," he took pains to point out Glam "continues to grow at over 200% in revenue year over year."

Yet another source claims this is an effort to improve net profitability in its core business by year's end. Executives are reportedly taking a 20 percent pay cut, with Arora halving his.

Glam reportedly set a revenue target of $100 million this year. Marking its overseas foray, it purchased UK online ad sales rep firm Monetise and German digital marketing firm Codex Media. The company plans to expand to the rest of Europe, China and India before 2010.

In the wake of its cutback announcement, Glam also announced its intention to launch a suite of sites aimed at men. Dubbed CodeBlue, the network will include in-house blog content, videos and programming from partners like MTV, NBC/News Corp., Hulu, and Sony Music.

It remains still unclear whether CodeBlue is a joint venture or if Glam will own it outright, writes PaidContent.

In February, Glam raised $84.6 million: $64.6 million in Series D venture funding and $20 million in revenue-based debt financing.