Howard will oversee the categories of luxury, fashion, watch/jewelry, retail, home, corporate and education.

“We are more than two years into a wholesale transformation of the advertising business at The New York Times,” Meredith Kopit Levien, EVP/CRO at The New York Times Company stated.

Howard joins NYT following leadership roles at WebMD and Yahoo! where she served as executive vice president, chief of consumer strategy and business lead, respectively.

Prior to these positions, Howard was publisher of Billboard and played a key role in relaunching the Billboard Music Awards.

Howard also worked at Condé Nast for 14 years, up until 2010. She held a variety of leadership roles including senior vice president, chief revenue officer of Fairchild Fashion Group; vice president, Interactive, Condé Nast Media Group; vice president, publisher of Style.com; and executive director of corporate sales.

Howard’s official start date is Feb. 22.

According to a statement, Levien and Howard plan to appoint a vice president and publisher of T: The New York Times Style Magazine soon to replace Monaghan.

This week, Monaghan made a few hires himself, snagging some of his former colleagues from NYT. Monaghan tapped Mark Lloyd, a Times luxury advertising and strategy director, as CNT’s integrated advertising director. He also poached Peter St. John, a Times fashion manager, who will serve as international fashion and luxury director, and Parker Bowab, who will serve as head of creative.

Coincidentally, today the New York Times Co. reported its profit shot up 48% in the final quarter of the year, helped by cost cuts and an improvement in digital subscription growth. However, advertising revenue slipped as print business continued to decline.

In the latest quarter, advertising revenue fell 1.3% to $204.8 million, as a 6.6% drop in print advertising more than offset a 10.6% jump in digital advertising.

NYT said digital advertising made up 34% of total advertising revenues, compared with 31% in the quarter last year.

Circulation revenue rose 1.3% to $213.3 million, as the company's digital-subscription push and an increase in home-delivery prices again offset a decline in print copies sold.

Over all, New York Times reported a profit of $51.7 million, or 31 cents a share, up from a year-earlier $34.9 million, or 22 cents a share. Revenue was $444.69 million compared with $444.68 million.