Leaked Yahoo E-mail Describes New Ad and Publisher Group Structure

In an 1,814-word e-mail sent to all employees Wednesday, Yahoo CFO Susan Decker detailed the structure of the company’s new Advertiser and Publisher Group. The reorganization details follow the group’s formation in December. There could be more reshuffling in store for the firm, advised Decker.

The group will be split into five divisions: Demand Channels, Supply Channels, Marketing Products, Local Markets and Commerce and Strategic Marketing and Major Initiatives. The Demand Channels section will focus on providing marketing solutions to large, direct sales customers and smaller self-servicing online advertisers. Greg Coleman, EVP global sales, will helm the direct side while former GM Yahoo Small Business Rich Riley has been promoted to head up the online division as SVP online channel and small business services.

The Supply Channels team is pressed to develop a competitive search, display and listings-based ad network, and will do so by snagging ad inventory on off-Yahoo publisher sites to complement the company’s Publisher Network inventory. As EVP of the also newly-formed Local Markets and Commerce Division, the firm’s previous SVP of Marketplaces Hilary Schneider will lead the newly altered Publisher Network. In addition, the listings-based Marketplaces operation Schneider was hired in September to start up, is being re-branded Local Markets and Commerce.

Decker described the Marketing Products division as being “the magic in the middle” of the other two divisions. The department will consist of segments including Search and Listings, Display, Product Management and Engineering segments. Yahoo will move to a more “centralized model for product management,” according to the memo. A separate Strategic Marketing and Major Initiatives division will work with various groups within the new organization in order to develop segment-specific offerings. No one has been chosen to run that operation yet.

There could be more transition to come. “As with any changes of this scale, we are evolving the organization over time,” wrote Decker.