Yahoo's Second Quarter Marked by Intensive Advertiser Planning

Yahoo saw spending increases by telecom and health industry advertisers during the second quarter, while spending in most other categories continued to decline. Additionally, execs said there were some signs of stabilization in automotive sector.

CEO Carol Bartz said the macro trend among Yahoo’s advertisers is closer attention to ad planning.

“Advertisers are planning their spending more actively than they did earlier this year,” she said. The quarter was also defined by Yahoo’s continued outreach to small and mid-sized advertisers and local businesses. During the period, the company piloted a self-serve ad buying system called My Display Ads geared toward small enterprises. It also continued to add newspaper consortium partners to its Apt display ad management platform. And simultaneous to its earnings announcement, Yahoo unveiled a local ad sales partnership with AT&T.

During the quarter just ended, Yahoo reported net income of $141 million, an 8 percent increase compared with the year ago period. Revenues were down 13 percent, to $1.6 billion.

Bartz said that is a positive result in light of the economy. She also said the company will increase its investment in products and marketing for the remainder of the year.

Also today, Yahoo rolled out a new version of its homepage that it’s calling “the most radical re-imagining yet” of the experience. The most significant aspect of the revamp is the company’s embrace of non-Yahoo content and services through a “My favorites” navigation bar on the left side of the homepage. These are made available to users as in-page modules — referred to as “apps” by Yahoo. The modules are monetized with Yahoo-sold ad units that can be targeted to the content brought in from outside sites.