Is there an intermediate step between using an ad network and hiring a sales force? Could ad brokerages fill this space?
There are lots of ad sales companies that you can outsource your direct ad sales to. The biggest problem is that they'll take 40-50% typically. If that's hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars it always makes sense to do it yourself.
About time, Microsoft did a terrible job monetizing Digg. Digg has about half of it's userbase outside of the US where Microsoft sells almost zero ads.
Maybe, but the TechCrunch article talks about a "nation-wide sales force"...