Wenda Harris Millard sat down for an entertaining question-and-answer at paidContent’s “EconWomen” conference today.

And while the co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) insisted that her relationship with founder Martha Stewart was just fine, I wanted to be clear: Was there any truth to a recent New York Post report that said she was feuding with Martha, and would end up running Microsoft’s online unit?

So I asked her.

“There’s nothing to it. I’m not going to Microsoft or anywhere else,” she told me.

Fair enough. Anybody want to take issue with that?

If you’re willing to use your real name, you can leave a comment below. If you want to be more discreet, you can email me: peter@allthingsd.com.

Meanwhile, a question still left unanswered: Who is going to run digital for Microsoft (MSFT), anyway?

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

She was also recently made chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the prominent interactive ad trade group.

Nonetheless, Millard left Yahoo under a cloud, as she and the company parted on the way online ads should be sold going forward and then got into a bit of a tussle of just who left whom, especially with Yahoo President Sue Decker.

Without going into the complicated and conflicting details, some of which became personal and became very public, it was definitely not the way Yahoo should have rewarded Millard–who is well-liked and well-known in the ad industry–after years of loyal service.

As I wrote in a post on her Yahoo departure a year ago:

But I did have an idea about how cloddishly that Yahoo could handle Millard’s departure, in a vain attempt to make it look like they are on the ball in a time of management turmoil that seems only to roil and boil more as time goes on. The decimation of executive ranks there is like watching an online version of “Ten Little Indians,” or for you kids, “Hostel.”

And when you badly treat an employee who has worked pretty hard over the years for you as Yahoo did Millard, you have to wonder how in the world the company is going to attract top talent from the outside–let alone keep those valuable employees on the inside from bolting.

But Millard’s departure–which seems to be a case of her looking for and getting another job, all while Yahoo was also rejiggering its approach to ad sales–was handled with no grace and much confusion.”

Sounds like a bit of a broken record for Yahoo by now; as it turned out, Millard became one of the first in a long line of Yahoo execs to head for the exits.

Millard first went to MSLO as its president of media and got the top job (jointly with Merchandising President Robin Marino) after former President and CEO Susan Lyne stepped down.

There she will have to focus a lot on MSLO’s online business, which is probably its best bet for future growth.

The company needs it, as it has been clawing its way back to better results of late. MSLO stock has been dropping since 2007, all the way to close to $5 a share, although it seems to have stabliized more recently in the mid-$7 range.

It is a good thing–oh, I had to–that online advertising is a topic Millard knows well.

In fact, she actually likes talking about the block and tackle of figuring out how to properly use commercial messages within the online space.

At Yahoo and today, she was well known as a backer of brands over the holy algorithm and has often railed against treating online ads as if they were pork bellies–that is, commoditizing the business.

Here’s the video of her talking about it and more:

She has apparently grabbed Vice President of Sales Strategy Jacki Kelley (pictured here), who one Yahoo wrote me “was one of the good ones.” It’s unclear what role Kelley will have at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where Millard landed this summer as its president of media.

[UPDATE: Kelley will be EVP of media sales for MSLO, running all sales for digital, magazines and broadcasting, a move that keeps her full-time in NYC. One reason she left: sources say Kelley was tiring of all the travel back and forth to Sunnyvale with all the Yahoo reorgs.]

Sources at the company said Kelley is not the only one taking off in the upcoming few weeks (and last week brought the departure of marketing head Cammie Dunaway to Nintendo and also longtime PR exec Joanna Stevens).

Here’s the late Friday memo from Yahoo Executive Vice President Hilary Schneider on the Kelley departure:

From: Hilary Schneider
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 8:33 PM
To: [XXX]
Subject: Sales Announcement

It is with mixed emotions that I am announcing that today is Jacki Kelley’s last day at Yahoo!. Since joining Yahoo! in May 2006, Jacki has led our advertising efforts for the travel category and has recently played an integral role helping to facilitate the integration of Yahoo!’s search and display sales teams. Please join me in thanking Jacki for her contributions to Yahoo!, and in wishing her the best of luck in the next chapter of her career.

To ensure a smooth transition, Jacki’s directs will report to [Dave Karnstedt] on an interim basis. The Advertising Strategy teams have done some great work, and our commitment to their efforts will continue unabated.

We’re making great progress on integrating the Sales Team, as well as with work we’re doing to ensure greater focus across the entire Global Partner Solutions division. The work we are doing now to align around customer needs will accelerate our ability to deliver the most value for our advertiser and publisher partners.

Thanks in advance for your continued focus.

Hilary

Tomorrow, the struggling Internet search giant will announce its second quarter earnings at 5 p.m. EDT (2 p.m. PDT).

The company is expected to have no gain in profit year to year. That translates to 11 cents a share for the quarter on $1.24 billion in net sales, the same earnings as the second quarter last year.

Newly installed CEO and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang will have to power through the call with new President Sue Decker. Its former CEO Terry Semel left the company days after the annual meeting last month, when the current weak quarter’s results were obviously going to become a bone of contention.

Having Semel make more excuses to investors would have been problematic, to say the least.

Here’s a video from MarketWatch about analyst expectations on the quarter for the Web giants:

Since Semel’s departure, the company’s ad sales chief Wenda Millard was also ousted, one in a long line of executive departures, all presumably designed to turn around Yahoo, but looking a little too much like garden-variety management turmoil. In any case, someone or something has to start moving the needle at Yahoo–especially given that it lags so far behind industry powerhouse Google and its next-in-line rival Microsoft is speeding up fast behind it.

I can say categorically that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is obviously aiming not at toppling Google at this point, but at grabbing the No. 2 spot from Yahoo in the Internet search market.

That could happen quickly, given the software giant’s deep pockets and drive. Data published last week, for example, showed Microsoft’s share of the search business rising 67%, to 13.2%, while Yahoo’s only rose 6.6%, to 19.6%. Google, of course, is at a runaway 62.7%.

At least Yahoo shares, which have remained lackluster, are not likely to be impacted, as the disappointment is already baked in. And many analysts are saying things are only likely to get better at the company, especially with the implementation of its new Panama ad search system in place finally.

Both Google and Microsoft report earnings later in the week, too. In Google’s case, most are waiting to see if it blows away estimates–which would not necessarily give a bump to its high-flying stock–or just meets them, which could clip the wings of its shares. Amazon and eBay earnings are also on deck.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

I noted a few weeks ago here that is was time to stop with all the recriminations related to its management turmoil and try to look at what Yahoo needs to get itself back on track. A lot of readers made great suggestions here.

But with its stock still in the tank awaiting what is widely expected to be a tough second quarter earnings call a week from tomorrow, all eyes are going to be on dramatic moves the company can make to turn itself around under the spanking new–yet obviously old, since they have been there the whole time–leadership of co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker.

So far, people seem excited by Yang’s roll-up-the-sleeves approach and think he is serious about remaining in the job longer than many, including yours truly, think he will.

“Jerry has a lot of good will,” said one top executive, who noted that Yang has the important tech credibility former CEO Terry Semel was lacking. “People want inspiration and a feeling like things are going to change here, other than another exec getting whacked.”

Indeed, Decker (left) is certainly looking for solutions, according to sources, spending a lot of time over the past weeks debriefing carefully selected top executives and those below them on their concerns and also eliciting their thoughts on what needs to be done at Yahoo, including how to better organize its ranks (again!).

Those who have talked to her say she has been thoughtful and willing to listen to feedback, which has not always been the case at the tippy top of the company.

But that also does not mean the whacking is over. Yang and Decker’s willingness to toss ad sales head Wenda Harris Millard over the side without a lot of pleasantries (we know, we know, Millard could be stubborn about newfangled ad forms and her brusque New York style was not cutting it anymore, but their Silicon Valley shiv-in-the-back move was truly breathtaking) in the first week on the job was seen as a warning shot to others about who was in charge.

And let’s be clear, that management shakeout might not be over quite yet, as executive musical chairs at Yahoo continues.

On the upswing, said several sources, is Hilary Schneider, pictured here, the sharp ex-Knight Ridder exec who came to Yahoo last fall and keeps getting more important duties. She is now executive vice president of Local Markets & Commerce Division and Yahoo! Publisher Network, which is a fancy way of saying she has a lot of important revenue businesses under her.

Another exec to look out for is Brad “Peanut Butter Manifesto” Garlinghouse, pictured here, whose memo on the many internal problems of Yahoo revealed last year was the spark for a lot of the current wildfire of change. While some think Garlinghouse was simply stating the obvious and that management was already working on its issues, others think giving him a wider role would be an interesting move.

Both Schneider and Garlinghouse might get increased duties, which could be a slight to current Network head Jeff Weiner, pictured right, who came to Yahoo with Semel and who many predict will eventually chafe under a more rigorous leadership from Decker.

Some blame Weiner for the slowness in getting the new Panama ad system in place, which is not really fair to load it all up on his plate given he got the clean-up job of Yahoo’s Overture acquisition late in the game and higher execs probably deserve the blame for the critical delay in allowing it to run separately for so long and not integrating it to battle Google more effectively.

But now that it is on track he might be looking to leave on a high note, and he obviously has a lot of outside choices where he can have more freedom.

In any case, I had an interesting short discussion with Weiner in this video post about 10 days ago and he still seemed excited by the changes at Yahoo.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

So before I get all blabby–and I will, my friends–here’s some ideas I got over the transom for helping the Internet giant find its way back to a more stable and sober life.

Brett Bullington, former Excite exec and well-known investor, looked backward:

I think where they went astray, which was awhile back, is they see themselves more as a media company than a tech or applications company (Excite had this issue, too). The reality is that they are an applications company that wraps media or content (professional, user-contributed, etc.) into a way that allows it to be used broadly and efficiently by the user. Subtle but major difference in the approach and who you cater to. Google clearly understands this better than anyone.”

Om Malik looked to baseball for inspiration in this recent post he flagged to me, looking at discouraging traffic and visitor trends at Yahoo as trouble for its momentum ahead.

The management shuffle aside, Yahoo has a bigger problem on its hands: the traffic, be it search or total visits, is beginning to resemble New York Yankees in the Major League Baseball rankings.”

Eric Frenchman, whom I quoted from his blog, Pardon My French (he could obviously not resist), made a point I have also made before and heartily agree with:

I think their No. 1 strategy should be trying to put Overture back together with MSN. The two can’t stand alone versus Google, but by combining MSN’s conversion know-how with Yahoo’s traffic they can give Google a run for their money.”

Bill Bucy, in the comments, noted an important issue to think about–public image. It’s not so good right now and needs to be, he wrote:

Interesting you mentioned PR as one area you’ll be looking at, because I think it will be a key function going forward. Not even the best PR maven can say something’s white when it’s black. But I haven’t seen much, if any, evidence of strategic thinking in the company’s communications. I think the [ganging up] on the Wenda Harris Millard situation is clear evidence of that.”

And Ashkan Karbasfrooshan sent me a series of links to posts from his blog, WatchMojo.com about Yahoo, in which he mused on a wide range of ideas, such as being bought by a private equity firm, merging with eBay, links with the younger and hotter (MySpace and Facebook, of course). I thought this was smart:

Ideally, Yahoo should remain patient, but its investors will continue to bail if they keep suffering from Google-envy. And that is the cost of remaining public. Increasingly, they’ll wonder why not accept MSFT’s $50B offer, and truth is, there’s no real guarantee that this was even ever offered or will be again in the future.”

In other words: Yahoo outlook, as usual: Cloudy with a chance of more clouds.

So let’s see in the coming months if we can begin to find a bit clearer skies.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

OK, I am officially starting to get weary writing about management and PR snafus at Yahoo, so I am turning my attention to the positive.

Unless, of course, there is another corporate misstep.

(It could happen.)

But starting tomorrow, I will begin to explore each part of the Internet giant–and, despite all the bad karma swirling around it, Yahoo is still huge and powerful–looking at its strengths and weaknesses and getting input on what it needs to do to excel again.

I am trying to get Yahoo execs to let me talk to the folks there running the various units directly, so they too can weigh in about what they are actually up to. I will also be talking to many former Yahoos for their insights.

While I am still compiling the list of areas I want to explore, they will include advertising, news and entertainment, morale, technology, public relations, mobile, search and, of course, leadership.

In other words, get ready Jerry and Sue–I have a long list of questions.

And I hope you do, too, as well as answers to the question of what Yahoo should do going forward. I would welcome any and all suggestions in the comments section here or you can write me at kara@allthingsd.com.

But since I cannot resist, here are some interesting posts about the recent mess around the departure of Yahoo sales head Wenda Harris Millard. Eric Frenchman of the Web site Pardon My French writes several times with obvious worry about the move. And Kevin Newcomb of SearchEngineWatch is also dubious here.

That included Millard herself, who called me back this morning from New York to talk about her leaving the company for another high-profile job as president of media at Martha Stewart Omnimedia.

Her quick exit last weekend caused Yahoo to lash back at her in a press release, essentially suggesting she was not qualified for her Yahoo duties anymore.

It’s one thing to think Millard was not quite right for the new challenges Yahoo faces in the ad business and a need to focus more on technical solutions, which she even seems to agree with, but it’s another thing to publicly give her a hard time for it.

In any case, the encounter ripped back the curtains on executive infighting at Yahoo, which is in the midst of some wrenching changes.

“I am very disturbed that Yahoo chose to turn my resignation into something that it was not,” said Millard. “I feel very sorry for Yahoo these days.”

Well, who doesn’t, given all the focus on its management turmoil and wobbly vision of late at the Web giant, capped last week by the news that CEO Terry Semel was giving up his job to Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang?

Millard attributed the behavior toward her to the intense pressure top executives are feeling because of relentlessly bad headlines, and especially because of the even worse news about the business.

The company has been buffeted by competition from Google in the search ad arena and more recently has seen a hit in its graphical display ad business.

Even Yahoo sources hostile to Millard, an experienced online ad exec, said she deserves credit for revitalizing its ability to sell to major-brand advertisers when she came on in 2001.

But they also said she was probably about to get the lion’s share of the blame for an expected falloff in graphical ad sales at Yahoo in its upcoming quarterly report.

That’s an area Millard was in charge of, and she acknowledged that the company needed to overhaul the way it sold advertising.

She said she was, in fact, part of the integration that has been going on for over a year about how to bring all ad sales together to sell in a more efficient manner.

As part of those changes, she said she was, in fact, open to the idea that she would take over international ad sales. “I had done the U.S. for six years and I thought it might be interesting,” she said.

Yahoo sources tell a different version, of course, claiming that Millard had become uncooperative over the last year and resistant to the changes being made, especially the new focus on “performance” advertising rather than brand ads that she preferred.

“Wenda really excelled in the branded ad business, where it is all about the emotional links people have to products,” said one exec at Yahoo. “But this was an environment where now it was all about measurement of ad results, and she resisted.”

Noting that executives at Yahoo always debate alternatives and that she did not always agree with every direction chosen, Millard scoffed at the characterization that she had become obstructive.

And she denied especially one particular story Yahoo sources related to me as an example of her difficulty: That she got into an ugly public fight at a recent ad confab in Cannes with the man who took over for her.

That would be David Karnstedt, pictured here, who is now the head of Yahoo’s now-coordinated North American advertising sales and who used to be in charge of just the U.S. search ad sales.

“Don’t you think that would be in the papers given all the focus on Yahoo?” said Millard. “It’s just silly.”

Millard said that she was simply approached by MSLO CEO Susan Lyne about coming to the media company many months ago. More recently, she thought it was a better move than the international job at Yahoo.

Lyne backed Millard on this timeline and said in an email that she tried to work with Yahoo to coordinate the announcement, to no avail.

Both she and Millard were then stunned to read a remarkably sour-grapes quote in a press release attributed to Gregory Coleman, the executive vice president of global sales.

“While Wenda was a big contributor to our success in the past, the industry has shifted and requires a different set of skills to take the business forward,” he said.

That seems to translate into: She can’t get on board with this newfangled ad business.

That contention seems patently questionable and makes an old pro like Millard seem bizarrely stubborn.

While intense data focus in the ad business is clearly not Millard’s forte (but it is Karnstedt’s), to contend that all her skills were now obsolete seemed odd, too.

In any case, MSLO thinks she has what it takes, putting her in charge of a number of businesses, including online, publishing, TV and radio.

And so did many ad players who contacted me yesterday. “She is a star,” said one person, who was a longtime rival of Millard’s at another big online company. “And worse for Yahoo is that advertisers love her, so this makes them look really petty.”

Millard said she feels blindsided, noting that she did not think her relationships at Yahoo had become that frayed.

“I always had great relationships there and had six great years there,” she said. “So I am stunned.”

I am hoping to talk to both Coleman and Karnstedt today about all this–they are at another Yahoo ad confab in Long Island, where they are trying to figure out ways to get the company’s ad business back on track.

And that’s a big enough issue to deal with without all this self-inflicted noise.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google. ]]> http://allthingsd.com/20070626/wenda-speaks/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20070625/wenda-was-robbed/ http://allthingsd.com/20070625/wenda-was-robbed/#comments Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:53:55 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20070625/wenda-was-robbed/