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.