Three major changes are afoot, according to VentureBeat:

• Glam is moving to open its advertising platforms for publishers – allowing them to cherry-pick the ads they want and run their own ad server. The program is called “Glam Evolution for Publishers.”
• Publishers will by able to “hyper-target” ad inventory. Interactive advertisers will be able to launch ads during certain times in certain places.
• Glam will change the way is runs “back-fill” ads. Previously, Glam had a cache of Glam house ads which it pays publishers to run for relatively low rates.

The reason: it may be a cost-cutting measure. An anonymous publishing source who works with Glam told TechCrunch:

“While they’re spinning this as positive news, it sucks for publishers. Publishers were previously guaranteed $3 – $5 CPMs for house ads. By no longer running any house ads, that revenue dies. And, given Glam’s fill rates retwork wide are only 30%, that’s 70% of traffic (for most publishers) that’s no longer earning revenue from Glam…It’ll basically cause a 30 – 80% drop in revenue for publishers.”

Scott Swanson, Glam’s general manager and vice president, responded on TechCrunch’s post in comments:

“As GM of the Glam Publisher Network, my team’s #1 priority is to ensure the success of our publishers and to help them secure high-CPM brand advertising. Unlike most other networks we do not compromise on our rate card and as a result, our partners benefit from high CPM brand advertising. When we’re unable to deliver a paid ad, we have traditionally run a Glam house ad (i.e. a current house ad announces our upcoming Glam Network blogger awards). Publishers have requested more choice for the impressions that our house ads would normally fill. This default ad technology simply replaces the Glam house ads with a host of options. This is similar to standard network ‘default’ technology that’s been in general use for years.

I want to acknowledge that Glam is successful because of our publisher partners. As a company, our focus is on convincing the brands to engage in new ways with a media landscape made up of independent premium publishers with passionate audiences. We welcome the ongoing dialogue.”