• by Ross Fadner , January 14, 2004

America Online Wednesday restructured its beleaguered advertising sales organization, tapping Time Warner sales wunderkind Michael J. Kelly to serve as its chief. The move, which comes less than a week after Lisa Brown stepped down as AOL's sales chief, is intended to finally shore up the once dominant online ad sales group, which saw its revenues fall approximately 40 percent during 2003. Kelly, who was president of global marketing at Time Warner Inc., was named president of the new AOL Network Sales and Solutions division. He will report to Ted Leonsis, vice chairman of AOL.

AOL said it created the new division to "capitalize on growth opportunities in its advertising," which should be ample given the year's advertising losses. The Network Sales and Solutions division will integrate AOL's ad sales, commerce, and search inventory across its entire network of services, including broadband, dial-up, messaging, wireless, and other Web-based properties.

Kelly was responsible for expanding Time Warner's relationships with its largest advertising and marketing clients, a feat he will need to replicate to revive AOL's ad income. A replacement for Kelly at Global Marketing is expected to be named shortly.

The groups currently running AOL's inventory and traffic operations under David Lebow, and the ad sales operations under Michael Barrett, will now report to Kelly in Network Sales and Solutions.

"Our sales, networks, and programming teams have worked together under Ted Leonsis' leadership to create interactive environments where marketers can interact with large and motivated businesses, contributing to a strong turnaround in our advertising business," said Jonathan Miller, Chairman and CEO of AOL.

Despite another tough year, and the abrupt departure of Lisa Brown, the AOL team remained optimistic about the "growth opportunities" presented for 2004.

Said Leonsis: "America Online has made superb progress over the last year in creating growth opportunities, by building valuable new inventory in our dial-up, broadband, Web, and messaging platform, as well as in launching new content properties, and by transforming ourselves into a more partner-focused organization."