Execs & Accounts for October 27, 2004

Blog publishing network Weblogs Inc. has hired an editorial director and a vice president of sales and marketing.

The new editorial director, Judith Meskill, has previously worked as a consultant on technology and communications strategies. She also runs two blogs on online collaboration and social media, Judith Meskill’s knowledge notes and the Social Software Weblog.

Shawn Gold, who was formerly president and chief strategic officer of eUniverse, will join Weblogs Inc. as vice president of sales and marketing. He also previously worked as VP of marketing at WHN and spent two years as Rare Medium’s head of strategic planning.

Weblogs Inc. is the publisher of more than 50 blogs, including Engadget.com, Autoblog.com, Joystiq.com, BloggingBaby.com and Mark Cuban’s BlogMaverick.com.

Rich media firm Viewpoint has named Patrick Vogt, senior vice president and general counsel for Sony eSolutions, to its board of directors. Vogt is responsible for Sony eSolutions’ Internet properties, direct marketing, and Web merchandising. Prior to joining Sony, he was Hewlett Parkard’s vice president and general manager of the Americas e-business and direct marketing group.

Knight Ridder Digital (KRD) has re-upped with adInterax, a maker of rich media production and management tools.

AdInterax lets users create videos, expandable banners and floating ads, and it also features tracking and reporting tools.

Portland, Ore.-based interactive marketing shop White Horse has opened a new office in Chicago. Tony Bagdy, most recently director of marketing for DigitalWork, will head up operations there.

The company opened the new office to better oversee clients in the Midwest and East, including Diners Club, McGraw-Hill, McDougal Littell and Wells Fargo. Bagdy will be responsible for daily operations and business development. He will also serve as lead account strategist in the region.

The company also launched a new Web site at www.whitehorse.com to coincide with the Chicago office opening.

Contextual advertising player ContextWeb has brought aboard two new senior managers.

Andrew Jacobsen, who was formerly vice president of sales for DoubleClick Media, has joined as senior vice president of sales and business development. Jay Sears has joined as vice president of business development/publisher relations. Sears was most recently senior vice president of business and strategy development for EDGAR Online.

Behavioral targeting player Revenue Science has promoted Nick Johnson, formerly senior VP of business development, to take on the additional title of general manager of account strategy. Johnson will manage Revenue Science’s publisher sales teams and oversee other publisher issues. He’ll also supervise relationships with advertising agencies and advertisers.

Paul Edelhertz, who was formerly responsible for publisher sales and oversight at Revenue Science, is now focusing on new business strategies for the company.

Johnson joined Revenue Science in February of 2004 from Lycos where he was national sales director. He will continue to work out of the company’s New York offices.

Reprise Media has named Vincent Russo as its new chief technology officer. Russo most recently worked as entrepreneur in residence at Highland Capital Partners. Previously, he was chief architect for all Terra-Lycos properties. The company has also opened a Boston office.

Two major newspaper Web sites have signed on to use WorldNow‘s video streaming tool, Video Producer. The Boston Globe‘s site and the interactive unit of the Atlanta Journal Constitution will use the tool. The browser-based technology lets non-technical staff manage video content and advertisements.