HotJobs Exec Departure from Yahoo Won't Affect Newspaper Group

So, as reported Friday, SVP and GM of Yahoo HotJobs Dan Finnegan has decided to leave the company. According to reports — and as confirmed by Yahoo — he was the guy at Yahoo who originated the newspaper consortium idea, which of course began with the notion of integrating HotJobs listings across newspaper sites, and has since evolved to include much more expansive plans for content and ad distribution.

The question I had for Yahoo was, does this affect the newspaper group? Nope, said spokesperson Emily Fox. Another insider familiar with Yahoo’s newspaper operation told me pretty much the same thing.

It has, however, been implied that Finnegan, who was replaced by Hilary Schneider while at the now defunct Knight Ridder, was not happy about her move to Yahoo as SVP of its then-newly-formed Marketplaces unit — and his boss. That division includes HotJobs.

“The minute she walked in, he was on his way out the door,” said a source.

Fox didn’t confirm any animosity between the two, but did tell me, “He had made a decision quite awhile ago that he was ready to do something else….He likes the new phases of things.” The newspaper consortium has moved into the “process” stage, she said, thus, might be kind of boring for someone with his entrepreneurial spirit.

Finnegan was kind enough to give Yahoo plenty of time to fill his shoes, added Fox, noting he won’t leave till the end of June.

Also, for the record, at a recent NAA event, Schneider said the newspaper consortium was up to 15 publisher partners.