• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, September 10, 2008 11:45 AM

Following a series of high profile departures, beleaguered Web giant Yahoo finally added a big name to its executive lineup on Tuesday, tapping former Microsoft executive Joanne Bradford to head its U.S. ad sales force. Bradford will replace the departing David Karnstedt, the former SVP of U.S. sales, who is heading to venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures. Bradford's official title will be SVP of U.S. revenue and market development. She will report to Hilary Schneider, Yahoo's Executive Vice President.

As The Wall Street Journal points out, this is no easy job, as weakness in display ad sales is one of the chief reasons Yahoo shares are trading at five-year lows. Bradford is also arriving at a company that's recently faced an exodus of senior talent in the advertising and product departments.

In an interview with the Journal, Bradford noted the company's deflated morale: "It's a time when they can use leadership and different perspective," she said. Most recently, Bradford worked as executive vice president of national advertising services for Spot Runner Inc., a company that uses the Internet to help companies create ads for television. Before that, she was corporate vice president and chief media officer at Microsoft's MSN.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »