What's Happening at Yahoo!?

News Yahoo yesterday announced the 300 million acquisition of Blue Lithium the fifth largest online advertising networkThe departure of Yahoo EVP Greg Coleman represents the end of an era for a company that has been consistently rated among the top performers in the annual Myers Survey of Advertising Executives on Online Sales Organization PerformanceIn this year39s Myers Survey distributed this week to subscribers Yahoo Search and Yahoo rank third and fourth among the 21 portals search engines and ecommerce sales organizations evaluated in the study The full study conducted in June includes 125 sales organizations Last year Yahoo and Yahoo Search were tied for third rank and in 2005 Yahoo was ranked first among portals and search engine companies This year Google ranked first and CNET secondFor Madison Avenue executives wondering quotwho39s in chargequot at Yahoo with the organization39s loss of its three most visible ad sales executives in the past three months Coleman offered assurances in an exclusive conversation with Jack Myers Media Business Report Coleman39s departure was announced last week although he will stay on through February as an advisor VeteranWenda Millard39s departure for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was marked with controversy and Jerry Shereshewsky left to become president of startup Grandparentscom which launches later this month The departures follow the resignation of Yahoo president Terry Semel in June Yahoo has been beset by perceptions of being strategically outofsync with the ad community since hiring and then firing former ABC programming chief Lloyd Braun Coleman says recent moves to integrate display ad and search sales are intended to once again advance Yahoo39s leadership vision and customercentric approach and accelerate ad revenue increasesThe decision to integrate display and search sales which Coleman counts among his key priorities precipitated Millard39s departure and led to the elevation of senior search sales executive David Karnstedt to daytoday authority over all sales management Just last month Karnstedt advised Jack Myers Media Business Report that Coleman could be expected to play a significantly more active and visible role in the Madison Avenue ad community Karnstedt who was reporting to Coleman as was Millard will now report to Hilary Schneider who joined the company last September as a key lieutenant to president Sue Decker Previously she was CEO of Knight Ridder Digital and publisher of Red HerringColeman intends to spend the next six months actively building bridges for the new team with Madison Avenue and to quotwork on integration to get it off to the best start Our customers agree integration of the sales teams is the right thing to doquot Coleman stresses His decision to leave he says came about after working closely on plans and strategies with Decker for the past three months quotThe decision was made for Hilary to run the business and I felt it was the best time for me to leavequotKarnstedt while respected for his search industry experience was not well known to the digital or traditional ad communities beyond search marketing Neither Decker nor Schneider have handson experience in the ad business and are expected to rely heavily on VP Beth Lawrence and Jackie Kelley who is wellrespected from her years as the senior sales executive at USA Today Kelley now heads global strategy for Yahoo reporting to Schneider and Lawrence reports to Karnstedt However as online video advertising gains increased momentum for brand advertisers39 and as search revenues flatten Yahoo will also require a quotvoicequot in the ad community with video experiencequotIn the future TV network buyers and sellers will need to understand search and 360 solutions focused on performance branding and sponsorshipquot says Coleman quotThrough osmosis there will be convergencequot Coleman stressed the Yahoo regional sales executives quotare a heavyweight group of talented executivesquot and that Decker Schneider and Karnstedt would be actively visiting agencies and advertisers during the next several monthsMillard was arguably the online industry39s senior statesman and Coleman who joined Yahoo in April 2001 had relinquished daytoday domestic advertising sales and marketing activities but remained wellknown and respected among senior industry leaders Coleman lists his major accomplishment since joining Yahoo from Readers Digest Magazines where he was president as quothiring the most significant and successful sales team in any medium and growing sales from 500 million to 6 billionquotBut he adds quotrelationships are the greatest accomplishment and the number of people reaching out to me from both inside and outside the company is overwhelmingquot Coleman will be actively involved at Yahoo reporting to Decker through February and then hopes to take a short time off before his next challenge He will continue to make his home in Los Gatos California his primary residence although he maintains an apartment in New York quotI39ve been working nonstop for 29 yearsquot he laughs quotand I39m looking forward to a chance to take a deep breath I39m excited for the next adventure after I wrap up my work with this team I lovequotColeman39s priorities during the transition period he advises will be to quotwork with Sue Hilary David and Jerry Yang to help cement relationships with the ad community assure that the integration model sets in and be sure our offnetwork partnerships with Comcast ATampampT eBay and others have appropriate focusquotAccording to the Myers survey 92 percent of advertisers who use online media include Yahoo on their 2007 schedules up from 83 percent in 2006 ranking first among all 125 sites measured Among these executives 50 percent rate the overall value of their relationship with Yahoo as quotexcellentquot or quotvery goodquot compared to 45 percent last year However 43 percent of the respondents rated Yahoo sales reps as quotexcellentquot or quotvery goodquot for being quotresponsive to needs and interestsquot declining from 51 percent in 2006

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What's Happening at Yahoo!?

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Maryann Teller

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Maryann Teller

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