Wenda Harris Millard: 'I'm Not Going To MySpace'
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, August 20, 2009
Rumors of Wenda Harris Millard's imminent plans to join MySpace are categorically false, the former head of Martha Stewart Living Co. told Online Media Daily on Thursday afternoon.
"It's not true, and I'm furious that this is being reported as fact," said Millard, who is presently vacationing on the Adriatic Sea. "This has ruined my vacation."
Rather, consultancy firm Media Link -- where Millard has served as president since April -- was recently hired by MySpace to advise the company on matters regarding ad strategy, according to Millard.
"We are working with Media
Link to improve our advertising product for our users as well as for our advertising partners," MySpace chief executive Owen Van Natta wrote in a blog post on Thursday afternoon. "As part of the
broader strategic relationship Media Link will help manage our day-to-day sales organization under the leadership of Wenda Harris Millard."
Van Natta also confirmed that Berman has decided
to leave MySpace "to explore other opportunities" after nearly three and a half years at the company.
Early Thursday afternoon, All Things Digital reported that Millard "is poised to take over all advertising sales at MySpace," citing an unnamed source. This accompanied news that MySpace's current ad sales head Jeff Berman is leaving the company.
In the post, the industry blog did clearly state that Millard would remain in her job at Media Link, "which has also been hired by MySpace to advise on restructuring the social networking company's salesforce."
Still, Millard emphasized to Online Media Daily that her relationship with MySpace would be no different than that of any company that hires Media Link.
"We're a consultancy -- hello?!" said a clearly perturbed Millard. "I just made a big move a few months ago; I'm the president of Media Link; I wouldn't make this change now."
Millard joined Media Link from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where she has been co-CEO and president.
Previously, Millard was chief sales officer at Yahoo, and prior to that was chief internet officer at Ziff Davis Media and president of Ziff Davis Internet.
If you know Wenda Harris Millard, you know that she's passionate about her work and demands high standards from herself and all around her. She gets online - and offline and the Big Picture, don't ever make that mistake. If she suffers no fools, don't blame her because the fools just happen to be online.
@ Clint -
you obviously don't know Wenda at all. She doesn't take her ball and go home to cry. Ever.
The bigger issue is obviously MySpace and the lack of ad sales. They continue to keep chasing their tail. Changing sales management and bringing in Media Link is a cry for HELP!!!! Wenda sold ads on Yahoo in its heyday. A far cry from MySpace in 2009. The Google search deal is over in 2010, MySpace better figure out how they are going to find replacement dollars. Can't imagine how it looks underneath the MySpace hood.
Enjoy the rest of Summer 2009.
Best, JB
A moment of silence
For poor Wenda Millard
Who while on vacation
Got some “news” she took hard
Damned industry gossip
Pegged her Rupert’s new catch
To salvage some ad sales
That Facebook did snatch
“Media Link is my space now,”
Her Beatles haircut insists
“Even if I was tempted,
I swear I’d resist.”
Euro-vacation “ruined”
We weep with dismay
For the non-millionaires
Who lost their jobs today.
I have to agree with Poems R US. If this rumor truly did "ruin" your vacation over in the Adriatic Sea, I'm not really going to feel sorry for you. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Wenda Millard Harris, she ran the original sales and distribution for the DoubleClick Media network, but seriously...did this "news" cause you to jump on a plane and return to New York to put out the fire? I doubt it. I'm absolutely jealous, as you're hopefully have a nice bottle of Chianti while sailing along the Italian coast.
The potential for advertising sales on MySpace has always been called into in question. Although Wenda Harris Millard comes off as petty in this article she has a very tough road ahead of her. I'm sure she didn't want the attention since failing in the spotlight is much worse than failing in the dark. I can only wish her the best with everything she’s taken on.