• by Mark Walsh , October 14, 2014

Yahoo has hired Kevin Gentzel, previously chief revenue officer at The Washington Post, as its new head of advertising sales for North America.

In his new role, Gentzel will report to Ned Brody, Yahoo’s head of Americas, and take on the task of reviving the Web giant’s ad sales results.

Despite CEO Marissa Mayer’s efforts to turn around Yahoo’s fortunes over the last two years, revenue growth has remained elusive. Display advertising especially has been a persistent weak spot, falling 7% in the second quarter compared to a year ago as ad pricing dropped off 24% during the period.

The hiring comes nine months after former company COO Henrique de Castro was ousted. His responsibilities included overseeing Yahoo ad sales globally.

At The Washington Post, Gentzel oversaw the launch of the newspaper’s native advertising products, BrandConnect and BrandStudio. The publisher reported its largest digital ad revenue total last year during his tenure, which lasted just over a year.

The Washington Post said Tuesday that Arnie Applebaum, the publisher of its targeted products, would become interim chief revenue officer.

The move comes just a week before Yahoo is to report third-quarter earnings. Wall Street analysts expect the company to report adjusted earnings of 33 cents a share on revenue of $1.04 billion. That total would be flat with results from the prior quarter.