• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 9, 2011

Yahoo has tapped Robertson Barrett as vice president of News and Finance, overseeing two of the Web portal's key properties.

Barrett will report to Yahoo Media Network head Mickie Rosen. Most recently, he was 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 such as the Japan Earthquake, the Royal Wedding and the killing of Osama bin Laden. Yahoo News had its highest-traffic week ever last week in the wake of news breaking about bin Laden's death.