Time Warner and Condé Nast invest in iSocket

Traditional publishers are getting even deeper into automated buying, as evidenced by Condé Nast’s just-announced investment in programmatic buying platform iSocket. ISocket revealed today that it has received $5 million in new funding led by Time Warner Investments and Condé Nast, as well as include R&R Venture Partners, a fund created by former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons and Ronald Lauder; and media investor Vivi Nevo.

iSocket, which offers tools for selling online ads, is announcing that it has raised $5 million in new funding. The round was led by Time Warner Investments, with participation from Condé Nast, R&R Venture Partners (a fund created by former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons and Ronald Lauder), and investor Vivi Nevo. iSocket focuses on sales where publishers (including TechCrunch) have a direct relationship with the advertiser. The company says those sales can require up to 50 steps to complete, so it offers iSocket for Publishers to automate much of the process. “We’re very pleased to have Time Warner and Condé Nast, two of the biggest names in publishing, endorsing our model for advertising sales automation,” said CEO Richard Jalichandra in the funding release. (Jalichandra, formerly the CEO of Technorati, joined iSocket last fall.)