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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Digital Management Musical Chairs: The Tooth-Free Edition

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Longtime Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse’s appointment to a new job at AOL today is yet another sign of an interesting trend for those keeping score of the comings and goings of top Internet execs.

As anyone who watches the digital space knows by now, this kind of management musical chairs is common and never-ending, although it seems more frantic than ever of late.

In fact, borrowing a quote by IAC/InterActiveCorp chairman and CEO Barry Diller from an onstage interview I did with him at the sixth D: All Things Digital conference, and switching out Hollywood for Silicon Valley: “[It] is a community that’s so inbred, it’s a wonder the children have any teeth.”

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Media Link’s Michael Kassan (in NYC) and Wenda Millard (From a Boat Somewhere Near Slovenia) Speak About Their New MySpace Gig!

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Wenda Harris Millard–calling in to BoomTown HQ from a cruise either on the way to or the way from Slovenia, since she said she was not exactly sure, given that it was the middle of the night there–wanted to make one thing clear:

She is still working for her other dozens of clients at Media Link as its president, but also has a big new gig helping MySpace get its advertising sales house in order, especially related to strategy and execution.

“I guess it’s a matter of semantics, but I will be leading the engagement,” said Millard. “But we have a whole team here too, and I am also still working for all our great clients.”

Okay, people?!? Which is, in Slovenian, in case anyone asks there, Wenda: Vidirati narod?

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MySpace to Hire Media Link (and Millard) to Fix Ad Sales; Berman Out

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In a move that will surely have Madison Avenue talking, well-known online advertising sales executive Wenda Harris Millard–who is now president of New York- and Los Angeles-based media consultancy Media Link–is poised to take over all advertising sales at MySpace, sources said.

But, in an unusual twist, the former Yahoo and Martha Stewart exec will remain in her job at Media Link, which has also been hired by MySpace to advise on restructuring the social networking company’s salesforce.

Current President of Sales and Marketing Jeff Berman will be leaving the company, MySpace has told employees via an internal memo.

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Monday, June 8, 2009

Coming to a Web Site Near You (This One): The Entire D7 Interview and Demo Sessions

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Tomorrow, just two weeks after it took place, All Things Digital will start posting the full sessions of the recent seventh D: All Things Digital conference.

We could not accommodate everyone who wanted to come in person, so you have already lost the opportunity to annoy major tech and media moguls and my mother all in one place (although Mission Accomplished! for BoomTown), but will be able to see all the content onstage here, in its entirety, on ATD, in the exact order we put on the show at the conference.

As a primer, here’s News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and singer Jill Sobule opening the show.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Exclusive: Platform-A Head Coleman Out at AOL, as Well as CFO (and More to Come?)

Platform-A President Greg Coleman–the former Yahoo advertising sales exec who came to AOL only three months ago–is leaving the company, sources said, as new CEO Tim Armstrong remakes his top staff in preparation to spin off the Time Warner online unit.

Coleman was brought to AOL by former CEO Randy Falco in February, replacing Lynda Clarizio, and will be replaced by a Google ad exec, Jeff Levick.

Armstrong, sources said, announced the moves to his staff tonight, right after he told Coleman about his decision late today.

Also out: CFO Nisha Kumar, who came to AOL in early 2007 from Time Warner, owner of the online unit.

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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

AOL Ad Head Clarizio Out–Being Replaced by Former Yahoo Sales Head Coleman

The game of executive musical chairs among Web companies keeps on going, with sources telling BoomTown that AOL ad head Lynda Clarizio will be departing the online service and be replaced by former high-ranking Yahoo advertising exec Greg Coleman.

The move at AOL, which has been in the works for only a week, could be announced as early as today, although I have been hearing rumors of such a development since late last week.

Both AOL’s content and communications units have been getting an overhaul of late, and now it seems it is time for its lackluster ad business.

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Friday, September 26, 2008

Rocky Seas for the Online Display Ad Market?

It is not so apt, if you think about it, that Yahoo has finally put up the details of its new system to let customers buy and sell display advertising–now called APT–right smack in the middle of the most serious financial meltdown of the modern era.

That’s because the economic crisis is likely to become a whirlpool that will be hard for any ad business to avoid, even the often recession-proof digital sector.

But it is Advertising Week in New York and, BoomTown supposes, the show must go on (it’s not as if they could suspend it, like a critically important Presidential debate or anything).

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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Wenda Harris Millard Speaks!

When I was recently in New York, I enjoyed a delicious breakfast, with a side of video interview, with Wenda Harris Millard.

She was recently named co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (aka the House Martha Built With Her Trusty Glue Gun).

Millard went to MSLO after many years of building and running Yahoo’s ad business (previous to that stint, she worked at DoubleClick in its earliest days).

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Monday, December 17, 2007

Marthapedia–It’s a User-Generated Thing!

Incredibly, it is the 25th anniversary of Martha Stewart’s first big splash with her iconic book, “Entertaining,” which pretty much ushered in the boom in lifestyle content.

While Stewart is known for her focus on home-making skills, some might not know that she is also a bit of a geek, who has been a fixture [...]

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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Another Yahoo Exec Departs

If Lloyd Braun, former Yahoo exec in charge of juicing entertainment who left under a cloud, could poach a few execs from the troubled Internet giant, so can former sales head Wenda Harris Millard, who also left Yahoo earlier this year after a rocky goodbye with management.

She has apparently grabbed Vice President of Sales Strategy [...]

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.

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Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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