Here’s a memo that interim Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn sent his troops earlier today about some management switcheroos. No surprise that ousted CEO Scott Thompson’s first big hire from his former job at eBay’s PayPal unit is gone — just-installed-a-minute-ago commerce leader Sam Schrauger. (Also heading out, but not in the memo is PR head Amanda Pires, also from PayPal.) Also moved aside is Thompson’s Chief of Staff Marta Nichols, who had been head of investor relations at Yahoo, to a position unknown. Levinsohn’s new chief of staff is Michel Protti. So who’s in? Levinsohn favorites, of course, including: Mickie Rosen, who headed Americas media and who now gets global media and commerce; Mollie Spillman, who was co-running commerce with Schrauger and is now head of marketing (replacing former CEO Carol Bartz regime exec Penny Baldwin). For those following the soap opera that I am chief writer for, “Days of Our Yahoos,” Levinsohn became leader of the beleaguered Internet giant after a controversy over a false computer science degree on Thompson’s bio. Like sands through the hourglass, these are the former employees of our Yahoo. (At least, though, this is not a story about the Facebook IPO — hands up for those sick and tired of that one now?) Here’s the Levinsohn memo: Yahoos: Thank you for all of the feedback, support, and comments since our all-hands meetings in Sunnyvale on Monday and NYC on Wednesday. I’m fired up and I hope you are too. I believe in the power of what we’re doing. We have an incredibly talented team, unparalleled strengths in key areas and most importantly, I see the purple pride building everywhere. Let’s move forward quickly with conviction and confidence. We have a lot to do. The most pressing thing I heard from you is the desire to clearly define our vision and strategy. I promise you we will be transparent and plan to articulate this in the coming weeks. Right now, we’re identifying the most critical priorities and initiatives, clarifying the scope and charter of teams, ensuring we’re positioned to build on successes quickly and effectively, and focusing on Q2. As part of this, there are a few changes to the structure of my leadership team beginning today: **Mickie Rosen is now the head of global media and commerce. Mickie has done a fantastic job driving our Americas media network and will now lead the global media team — including media editorial, business development and partnerships, product, design, and engineering.
Read More
General Motors Co. GM -0.97% plans to stop advertising with Facebook Inc. after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers' car purchases, according to a GM official. The move by GM, one of the largest advertisers in the U.S., puts a spotlight on an issue that many marketers have been raising: whether ads on Facebook help them sell more products. On Friday, Facebook is expected to sell shares in an initial public offering that could put a market value on the company of as much as $104 billion. Executives have spent the last two weeks trying to convince
Read More
Real Simple caused a stir on the web in December when it told Ad Age that it was getting more referrals from a relatively obscure platform called Pinterest than from Facebook. Five months later, it has joined an exclusive "100,000 Club" comprising brands with a six-figure following on the social-media upstart. Real Simple is the first print publication to crack six figures, according to a ranking by the social-media influence tracking service ZoomSphere, and trails only wedding blog The Perfect Palette (255,000 followers) and the hair and makeup how-to site The Beauty Department (123,000 followers). To give some context, the next-most-followed
Read More
New York City is known for its culture, its cuisine, and its natives’ ability to curse in multiple languages. It’s less known that The Big Apple also has a burgeoning tech industry. But we New Yawkers have something that Silicon Valley or Redmond does not: We have Internet Week, a festival for the digerati and the people who love them. The fifth annual Internet Week, which will take place from May 14-May 21, is a chance for the interconnected to meet in meatspace. It’s more than a collection of technical lectures: In its way, it’s a homage to New York City,
Read More
So why are the giants of American software, social networking, online retailing, mobile devices and computing determined to square up to each other? Microsoft [MSFT], partner of handset device giant Nokia, last week eased itself into the ebooks market with its $300 million investment in Barnes and Noble. Seems the software giant wants a slice of the e-reader market, where Amazon is king. Microsoft’s purchase, though, is part of a very interesting puzzle, when set alongside, for example, rumors of a Facebook smart phone device or what Google is doing in social or retail. Google [GOOG] also bought into devices nearly a
Read More
Not everyone believed that the Febreze commercials featuring blindfolded people sitting in dirty -- but Febrezed -- rooms were completely real. To persuade the doubters, Grey New York pulled off a stunt in New York City ("home of the biggest skeptics in the world," according to the agency). It outfitted an old shipping container once used for seafood with Febreze freshener plug-ins and put it in the middle of the meatpacking district. People in the vicinity were blindfolded and led inside, then asked: "Where do you think you are?" Link: Grey Brings Febreze Experiment to Life in New York
Paywall sites are having a bad month. Google shuttered One Pass at the end of April. Now paywall and news aggregation site Ongo, which launched in January 2011 with $12 million in funding from the New York Times, Washington Post and Gannett, is closing, Nieman Journalism Lab reports. Ongo was founded by former eBay and PayPal exec Alex Kazim and aimed to aggregate news while charging for some content from big newspapers. NYTco’s Martin Nisenholtz described Ongo as a “Hulu of news.” But as Nieman explains, the pricing scheme was confusing: A basic Ongo subscription gave you access to content from The Washington Post
Read More
Ever wonder what the Incredible Hulk smells like? Try Indian sandalwood, musk and sharp cedar. "It's more of an earthy fragrance," said Andrew Levine, CEO of Jads International, the Maryland-based marketer that signed on to produce a line of "Avengers" scents, including Smash, a cologne based on the green superhero. "You have to mimic the character." Dozens of companies are tying in with "Marvel's The Avengers," the Walt Disney Co. action film opening today in the U.S. With its Captain America character dating back to World War II, "The Avengers" has an unusually broad appeal, attracting licensing and sponsorship deals that go well
Read More
Next week festival-goers will have an opportunity to experience New York City's digital culture and thriving tech scene at Internet Week. The festival will showcase interactive art installations, host classes conducted by top technologists and artists, nightly parties and concerts, and hundreds of panels and keynotes featuring the industry’s leading thinkers. It will bring more than 45,000 people from around the world to nearly 250 events at the festival’s new 50,000 square foot, two-story Soho headquarters at 82 Mercerand dozens of locations throughout the city. Highlights include: Keynotes by David Carr and Brian Stelter of The New York Times, VICE Founder Shane Smith, and legendary music
Read More
Young people are more comfortable using services including social media networks, text messaging and email, but how often do they use video chats and media facilities? The latest research report provided by the Pew research institute Internet & American Life Project suggests that video and media streaming use is on the rise. The survey comprised of 799 teenagers aged 12 - 17 who were asked about their online behaviours and video-orientated activities. It was fielded between April and July in 2011. The survey found: 95 percent of respondents use the Internet in some fashion. 37 percent of internet users aged 12 - 17 participate in
Read More
