Yahoo today announced Robertson Barrett will join the company as vice president of News and Finance, overseeing two of the Web portal's key properties. Barrett, who will report to Yahoo Media
Network head Mickie Rosen, was most recently chief strategy officer of Perfect Market, a Comcast-backed venture, where he was responsible for building relationships with major news brands.
However, Barrett's background also includes management stints at Tribune Interactive, Time Inc., ABC News, Primedia's Channel One Interactive, and The Feedroom over the last 20 years. The hiring comes
only days after Yahoo snagged Huffington Post Media Managing Editor Jai Singh from AOL to serve as editor-in-chief of the Yahoo Media Group.
Yahoo and other news sites this year have been
seeing a spike in traffic as a result of stories including the Japan Earthquake, the Royal Wedding and the killing of Osama Bid Laden. Yahoo News it had its highest-traffic week ever last week in the
wake of news breaking about bin Laden's death.