She's only been at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for four months, but it looks like co-CEO Wenda Harris Millard might already be clashing with the domestic doyenne herself. Although Millard calls the friction a "healthy debate," insiders are suggesting it's only a matter of time before she leaves MSLO's…
As Yahoo tries to catch up to Google in automated advertising, it continues to lose the human capital now-departed managers like Wenda Harris Millard so carefully built. The latest defection: Valeh Vakili, an eight-year veteran of the portal's salesforce, who has joined MySpace as a senior vice president in charge of…
NEW YORK — Yahoo's last great sales chief and current Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia co-CEO Wenda Harris Millard joined a panel today as part of this week's Advertising Week festivities here in New York. As the talk began, all was light and mirthful. Then MIllard responded to the moderator's question on whether the…
Seven years ago there were less than 50 online ad networks. Today there are more than 300. But that number could shrink just as quickly, reports Lucia Moses in MediaWeek. At least, that's what her executive sources at publishers Rodale, Martha Stewart and Forbes hope. Rodale's MaryAnn Bekkedahl says that when her…
Is Martha Stewart co-CEO Wenda Harris Millard, a former Yahoo executive, a bit ungrateful? In this excerpt from an interview with BoomTown's Kara Swisher, Millard explains what's wrong with what Google's made everyone believe about online advertising. The story, as it's conventionally told here: Silicon Valley owes…
WASPy, blonde Martha Stewart doppelganger Susan Lyne has stepped down as chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and will be replaced by new co-CEOs Robin Marino and Wenda Harris Millard, the popular former Yahoo sales chief. As Gawker pointed out, the stock price is tanking, but Lyne did bring the…
Susan Lyne, who took over Martha Stuart Living Omnimedia when its namesake went on a five-month vacation to the clink, is stepping down after failing to revive the company's ailing stock price. The CEO job will now be shared by two women: Wenda Harris Millard, president of the media division, and Robin Marino, who…
Bad news for TV, print and radio: heavy-spending packaged goods advertisers, such as $300 million-a-month Procter & Gamble, don't want to make annual ad-planning commitments anymore. Due to rising fuel, food, and commodity costs, these advertisers only want to commit to spending quarter by quarter. "The planning…
On Madison Avenue, people still talk about the disgraceful way Wenda Harris Millard was ushered out of Yahoo. The short version: Millard called Sue Decker, Yahoo's president, to turn down her offer of a job running international sales and let her know she was taking a top job at Martha Stewart instead. Decker…
Like a child actor, Yahoo has always lived its life in public — and suffered for it. Its April 1996 IPO, when the company had a mere 49 employees, cast it in the spotlight long before it was ready. And like Hollywood, the stock market looks coldly on a fallen star. Microsoft's offer of $44 billion is less than the…
Only last year, the word on Madison Avenue was that while Google might be getting all the attention, Yahoo's human touch kept it in the game. No longer, with the disgraceful farewell Yahoo bid to star saleswoman Wenda Harris Millard, and its promotion of hapless nonentity Dave Karnstedt. Disgraced stock analyst…
I've noticed a trend in goodbyes from Yahoo: All the departing executives claim to "bleed purple." If so, Yahoo blood is thinner than water, because there's little love for president Sue Decker's new regime. Jacki Kelley is the latest executive to flee the sales side, now under Decker ally Hilary Schneider. She…
Looks like Yahoo marketing head Cammie Dunaway's departure caught Sunnyvale offguard — much like sales chief Wenda Harris Millard's. Yahoo president Sue Decker's followup email, sent out after Dunaway's announcement, details the management changes on the marketing side of Yahoo. The takeaway: Dunaway had no deputy…
MarketWatch, ahead of Yahoo's third-quarter earnings, said the company was looking to "start fresh." In other words, kindly ignore the drop in net income, the rise in expenses, the continued problems in display ads the company just reported — that's all in the past. How many fresh starts does a company need — or…
Wenda Harris Millard, the abruptly ousted Yahoo ad-sales executive who left the Internet company for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, reveals that her new employer made a big mistake by designing its website for beauty, not utility. A pretty, video-filled front page made it too hard for users to find recipes and tips.…
