A gauntlet of wildly cheering sales people dressed in brightly colored T-shirts, a sleek, white store, a simple but elegant design.
You will be excused for thinking the video below is from an Apple store, but it is actually from the opening of a Microsoft Store in Scottsdale, Ariz., today.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
For the past few months, the Huffington Post has been on a bit of a tear–both in terms of traffic gains and in its hiring of some big talent for key positions.
Now, those execs are focusing on using that consumer momentum to achieve what has eluded the Huffington Post thus far: Making some serious bank from the privately held news and media site.
Here’s a chat I had with new President and Chief Revenue Officer Greg Coleman about how he is aiming to do just that.
In a week, the entire advertising sales staff of MySpace will gather at a swanky new seaside resort about 20 miles south of Los Angeles to get a first glimpse of the fresh direction the company is preparing to take under its new management.
The beleaguered social networking site has been in the midst of an effort to reinvigorate its image, spur innovation in its product and–most of all–pull itself out of a too-long slump, even as longtime rival Facebook has seen explosive growth.
On the possible agenda: A new strategy aimed at music and entertainment; a new look; and, perhaps, a new boss for the ad sales team.
Let’s all agree first to blame owner Condé Nast for deciding to shutter Gourmet–the elegant and iconic magazine, which has been around since 1941, after the November issue.
While circulation remained steady at Gourmet at just under one million monthly paying subscribers, Condé Nast Chief Executive Officer Chuck Townsend pointed to a fall-off in advertising spending by luxury brands that result in a money-losing mess.
But some are blaming a movement of readers to the Web. Is it true?
In the ongoing game of Internet exec musical chairs, Greg Coleman, who has been a top exec at both Yahoo and AOL, is poised to become president of the Huffington Post, as well as chief revenue officer, several sources said.
The deal for Coleman to come on board at the privately held online news site–which has grown significantly over the last year and just added well-known online media exec Eric Hippeau as CEO–came together only recently.
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?
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.
One of Yahoo’s highest-ranking premium advertising sales execs–David Dickman, VP of West Coast sales–is leaving the company, people familiar with the situation said.
Sources said Dickman, who will leave Yahoo at the end of the month after three years at the company, is reportedly going to Warner Bros. to work in digital sales.
This comes after another ad sales exec, Todd Taplin, who ran sales in New England and Canada, left last week.
Now what?
The party-all-night social-networking site that has been MySpace so far got a massive morning-after shock yesterday when 30 percent of its workforce was laid off.
And today, MySpace, which is still 1,000-strong, has to face the cold, harsh light of day in the aftermath of the restructuring and get busy quickly figuring out a way to reinvigorate a brand that has suffered after a stunning rocket of a start many years ago.
So, based on many sources I have spoken to over the last week, here’s a rundown of the next steps MySpace will likely be taking and who’ll be making them.
Microsoft is searching for a major executive to run its world-wide online sales, said several sources close to the situation, even as talks with Yahoo about a deal to partner in its search and display advertising businesses continue.
“They need to find a way to make money in display,” said one source close to the situation. “Or, I guess, find a way to not lose quite so much.”
The software giant has been trying to build its online business for many years now, spending a lot of money and not getting very much traction.
Meanwhile, the talks Microsoft has been having with Yahoo about outsourcing its online display sales to the Internet giant, among other scenarios, continue.
More musical chairs at Yahoo, which BoomTown predicted recently, as top execs at the company move in and out of jobs, and new ones from the outside move in.
Perhaps the most important change to occur is the replacement this week of SVP Scott Dietzen–who had been in charge of all communications and communities products at Yahoo–by former Adobe Systems exec Bryan Lamkin, several sources said.
And there’s even more…
Well, despite the news being as bad at Microsoft as it was at Yahoo earlier this week, the conference call after the software giant released its third-quarter earnings was 100 percent less naughty and 200 percent more glum.
In other words, while there were no F-bombs dropped, there were lots of E-bombs–as in econalypse.
Here’s BoomTown’s liveblogging of the call–featuring the software giant’s semi-apocalyptic CFO, Chris Liddell.
Microsoft’s earnings and revenue took a hit in its third quarter, as expected, with profits down 32 percent from a year ago on a six percent sales decline.
Before one-time charges, the software giant earned $2.98 billion, or 33 cents a share after one-time charges, on revenue of $13.65 billion.
The weak results were relatively in line with analysts’ estimates of 39 cents a share on $14.1 billion in revenue.
The culprit for the bad news was the decline in consumer and business spending on computers since half Microsoft’s operating income comes from sales of its Windows operating system.
More moving of the chairs at AOL’s Platform-A.
The Time Warner online unit will announce today that Mark Ellis has been promoted to EVP of sales at the advertising division.
He will lead Platform-A’s digital ad sales, sources said, including premium efforts at AOL’s MediaGlow content unit and for its third-party ad network.
It is all part of extensive management reorganization being done by Platform-A President Greg Coleman, as new CEO and Chairman Tim Armstrong started yesterday in his new job of reviving AOL.
Former top Yahoo advertising exec David Karnstedt, who has been parked at a Silicon Valley venture firm since he left the company, has been named president and CEO of Efficient Frontier.
Interestingly, another former Yahoo exec, Ellen Siminoff, has also been CEO at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based search engine marketing firm. She is now chairman.
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.
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.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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