“I’m pleased to announce that the vision I’ve pursued at Amped Market Place Inc. to help digital media companies amplify their recruitment business is being “AMPed” through a partnership with RealMatch, Inc….The interests of AMP have merged with RealMatch and I have joined them as their Chief Revenue Officer.”

… whatever that means. Good grief. And we’ve tried calling him a couple of times without success.

Baker served as VP at Hire.com before he joined Adicio. He’s also worked with Madgex, a UK-based competitor to Adicio and RealMatch. He started Amped in August 2010; it’s not clear whether he’s shutting it down, incorporating it into his work with RealMatch, or planning to operate it as a separate company.

For more on what each firm offers for hiring managers, publishers and candidates, read the AIM Group’s Recruitment advertising 2012: “Social 2.0″ (CIR 12.23, Dec. 15, 2011) 

Here are the winners and nominated finalists, in the classifieds categories:

Best Classified Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors and over

Oodle

Deseret Digital Media - WINNER!

Legacy.com

The Boston Globe

PennySaverUSA.com

Best Classified Website with 250,000 to 1 million unique monthly visitors

USA4SALE

UsedEverywhere.com - WINNER!

Best Classified Website with under 250,000 unique monthly visitors

Adicio / CareerCast - WINNER!

Ranger Data Technologies

In this 16th annual contest, each EPPY™ entry is judged on its own merits within a particular category. Finalists must receive a score in the top one third of the average score across all categories within their division (1 million and over unique monthly visitors; 250,000 to 1 million unique monthly visitors; or under 250,000 unique monthly visitors).  See all winners on the Editor & Publisher site. 

By Sharon Hill
The Denver Post, a MediaNews Group newspaper, has just reported new executives for Digital First Media. Back in September we reported the launch of the new Digital First Media that jointly manages Journal Register Company and MediaNews Group, with John Paton at the helm as CEO.

The new leaders are:

www.bigtex.com

Here’s the news release: 

Cars.com and PickupTrucks.com Turn Texans Into “Textans” at the State Fair of Texas

CHICAGO, Sept. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Cars.com, the premiere online resource for buying and selling cars, in partnership with PickupTrucks.com, an authoritative site for pickup truck news and reviews, today announced that Texans get to be the critics in the sites’ “Truck of the Fair” competition at the upcoming State Fair of Texas. To participate, fairgoers can text their vote to 35350 after seeing all the new models in the fair’s Truck Zone.

“As editor of PickupTrucks.com, I get a chance to share my thoughts on new trucks through reviews and articles on our website,” says site editor, Mark Williams. “But what’s special about our Truck of the Fair competition is that gives the actual buyers and enthusiasts a chance to make their voices heard and crown one truck their favorite.”

“The Texas State Fair houses the largest pickup truck show in the country for the largest population of pickup truck enthusiasts in the country,” says Williams. “Manufacturers will be bringing all of their best-selling models to try to impress this tough crowd but to win the crown, they’re going to have to show some of the smartest truck buyers in the country something very special.”

Last year, the 2011 Ford F-350 Lariat won the PickupTrucks.com/Cars.com Truck of the Fair competition. In 2009, the 2010 Ford F-150 took home the crown.

“Ford has dominated among voters since we started our competition,” says Williams. “This year, they’ll face some tough competition as manufacturers continue to roll out better trucks with more standard features than ever before.”

Voting for “Truck of the Fair” begins on September 30th and runs through October 23rd.

ABOUT CARS.COM AND PICKUPTRUCKS.COM

Cars.com was recently named the “Best Overall Customer Experience” by Keynote Systems, the leader in Internet and mobile cloud marketing. Cars.com is an online destination for car shoppers that offers information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. PickupTrucks.com, part of the Cars.com brand is dedicated to the distinct needs of pickup truck buyers and owners. Both sites offer thousands of new and used vehicle listings, consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other tools. Cars.com and PickupTrucks.com put millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions.

Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including Belo (NYSE: BLC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

SOURCE Cars.com

Yahoo! Announces Leadership Reorganization

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced a leadership reorganization under which the Board of Directors has appointed Timothy Morse interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, replacing Carol Bartz, who has been removed by the Board from her role as Chief Executive Officer.

The Board has also named key senior Yahoo! executives to a newly formed Executive Leadership Council tasked with supporting Morse in managing the Company’s day-to-day operations until a permanent chief executive is appointed, as well as supporting a comprehensive strategic review that the Board has initiated to position the Company for future growth. 

Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board, said, “The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company’s leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities. We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.”

Bostock continued, “On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the Company’s history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop. I would also like to express the Board’s appreciation to Tim and thank him for accepting this important role. We have great confidence in his abilities and in those of the other executives who have been named to the Executive Leadership Council.”

In addition to Morse, who will also continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer of Yahoo!, the Executive Leadership Council will consist of Michael Callahan, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; Blake Irving, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer; Ross Levinsohn, Executive Vice President, Americas; Rich Riley, Senior Vice President & MD, EMEA Region; and Rose Tsou, Senior Vice President, APAC Region. The Co-founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, will each continue as Chief Yahoo and will provide counsel to Tim and the Executive Leadership Council.

“It is an honor to be selected for this role and lead the Company with this world-class team of executives. I look forward to working with the Executive Leadership Council and the talented employees of Yahoo!, and to partnering with the Board to invest in the organization and continue to drive its ongoing growth plans,” said Tim Morse, Interim Chief Executive Officer.

The Board is commencing a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and expects to engage the services of a nationally recognized executive search firm to help it identify candidates for the position as expeditiously as possible.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! is the premier digital media company, creating deeply personal digital experiences that keep more than half a billion people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe. And Yahoo!’s unique combination of Science + Art + Scale connects advertisers to the consumers who build their businesses. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).

This press release contains forward-looking statements (including without limitation the quotations from our Chairman and management) concerning Yahoo!’s future management, strategic plans, growth opportunities and performance. Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the results predicted. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the impact of management and organizational changes; the implementation and results of any strategic plans as well as Yahoo!’s ongoing strategic and cost initiatives; Yahoo!’s ability to compete with new or existing competitors; reduction in spending by, or loss of, advertising customers; the demand by customers for Yahoo!’s premium services; interruptions or delays in the provision of Yahoo!’s services; security breaches; acceptance by users of new products and services; risks related to joint ventures and the integration of acquisitions; risks related to Yahoo!’s international operations; failure to manage growth and diversification; adverse results in litigation, including intellectual property infringement claims and recent derivative and class actions related to Alipay; Yahoo!’s ability to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands; dependence on key personnel; dependence on third parties for technology, services, content, and distribution; general economic conditions and changes in economic conditions; transition and implementation risks associated with the Search Agreement with Microsoft Corporation; and risks that the benefits of the Framework Agreement Yahoo! entered into with Alibaba Group, Softbank Corporation and certain other parties regarding Alipay may not be realized. All information set forth in this press release and its attachments is as of September 6, 2011. Yahoo! does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. More information about potential factors that could affect Yahoo!’s business and financial results is included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Yahoo!’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and available at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

NCI, which publishes hundreds of real estate rack-and-stack publications, along with several online real estate products, has an opening at the top. The company is conducting a national search to replace CEO Dan McCarthy, who resigned after nine years.

Atlanta-area-based NCI publishes Apartment Finder and The Real Estate Book and their companion websites; several high-end home-and-lifestyle guides, and Digital Sherpa. It’s represented in more than 500 U.S. markets, and calls itself “a leading local media company providing lead generation, advertising and Internet marketing services to the housing industry.” It distributes more than 9.4 million print classified guides monthly and reaches a reported 2 million unique users monthly.

Fulton Collins is serving as interim CEO; Gerry Parker, who was CFO, became president as well. McCarthy will remain on the board of directors. Collins said NCI (formally Network Communications Inc.) would retain an outside search firm to find a permanent CEO. (We’ve called and ask for the name of that search firm — it might help you to know that — but they haven’t called us back.)

“While the Board believes in the strength and ability of current management, it also believes that the search for new leadership should be managed in a prudent and systematic fashion,” Collins said in the news release. “The search firm will be directed to consider internal and external candidates for the position.”

     So it probably comes as no surprise that Rebecca Bradner, the CAD at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has pulled the plug.

     Bradner, who was class-ad director at The Hartford Courant (owned by Tribune) and at Tucson (Ariz.) Newspapers before she joined the R-J, sent a note to friends saying that she had resigned after “a challenging year.” (Talk about understatement!) Her LinkedIn profile says merely, “No longer at the Review-Journal … . Thinking about my options.”

     Even though the Vegas economy is dismal, Bradner had some successes at the R-J. During the boom times, of course, real estate and hiring were strong in Las Vegas, and her classifieds department capitalized on those good years; more recently, she and recruitment advertising manager Chelle Bize developed a series of niche online job sites focusing heavily on employer videos. With a series of URLs like LVCasinoJobs.com, LVHospitalityJobs.com and LVRNJobs.com (for registered nurses), Bradner and Bize innovated like crazy trying to keep an abysmal situation from being even worse.

     What’s up next? She doesn’t know yet. But you can probably reach her through LinkedIn. Or through us. (Just don’t use the R-J address that’s still on her LinkedIn page.) Maybe she’ll even make it to the Western Classified Advertising Association conference in San Diego next month; she’s long been a leader at WCAA. Sounds like something she might do even if she has to pay for it out of her own pocket.

Bellack worked with Classified Ventures from July 1997 through November 2003, as general manager / SVP of real estate and CFO of the company. His LinkedIn profile says he was a CV cofounder who helped raise the $50 million initial investment in Classified Ventures and then raised another $350 in follow-on investments. More recently, Bellack spent two years as cofounder and CEO of Zetabid.com, an online real estate auction site focused on short sale and foreclosure properties.

Bellack was chief digital officer of the Los Angeles Times Digital Media group for almost five years, from 2004 through 2008, and he also oversaw the L.A. Times online and print classified advertising businesses. L.A. Times Interactive represented 40 percent of all Tribune Interactive revenues. From 1994-1994, he was VP / GM of Tribune Direct, and then joined Compton’s New Media. 

Bellack, who will report to Newegg CEO S.C. Lee, has an MBA from Northwestern University and a BS in accountancy from DePaul University. He’s a certified public accountant in Illinois.

Newegg describes itself in the news release as “the second-largest online-only retailer in the United States.” We’re not sure about that, but we do know that it used to be the go-to spot for the best bargains in technology. We spent a lot of money there! (Haven’t bought too many new tech toys lately, so don’t know if it’s still the bargain heaven it once was.)

Dalton launched his career at Harte-Hanks  in 1987. Over the years, he has held sales management, marketing and business management positions, and was named president of the Northern California shoppers operation in 1996, and then president of PennySaverUSA.com and TheFlyer.com in 2006

          Morgan, who lists himself on his LinkedIn profile as a “visionary sales executive, leader and team builder,” started at Gabriels a few weeks ago. He’s based at their offices in New York.

          Before joining Gabriels, he was chief advertising officer at North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record in Hackensack, the Herald News in Passaic County and nine community publications. Previously, Morgan worked as an advertising director for Gannett and spent eight years on the West Coast working for Pacific Sierra Publishing in Merced, Calif., and Sound Publishing in Kitsap, Wash.

His appointment was announced today.

Silver held “lots of different vice-presidencies” at Tribune Co. and has an MBA from Stanford and an MS in journalism from Columbia University. He started his career as a reporter at the Miami Herald, and spent almost four years as a reporter at The Orlando Sentinel before moving into television at a Miami public television station. He was with Tribune from 1985 through 2007 and joined the Newspaper Consortium in August of 2008.

“The Knight Lab presents a unique opportunity to foster innovation through technologies with appeal to traditional news providers as well as the many new voices that are shaping the way we keep up with news today,” Silver said in the news release.

The lab, described as “the first of its kind” by Northwestern, will bring together journalists and computer scientists “to improve the news and information people use to understand their communities and run their lives.” Rich Gordon, who like Silver also worked at the Miami Herald, is a professor and director of digital innovation at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and has long been trying to get journalists and computer scientists to work together.

“Mike’s depth of experience in digital technologies, publishing, news and media is exactly what we need to move the Knight Lab forward,“ said Kristian J. Hammond, director of the Medill-McCormick Center for Innovation in Technology, Media and Journalism. “With him at the helm we are set to transform a set of exciting possibilities into a brilliant reality.”

Oh, about that small start-up, Quantum? It later became AOL, and Tribune’s investment of $5 million for a 9 percent stake was worth more than $1.5 billion at one point.

Publishing executive brings combination of digital, legal and association experience to the leading trade association for newspapers

Arlington, Va. – NAA today announced that its board of directors has appointed Caroline H. Little – a seasoned newspaper executive who has led innovative digital publishing companies –to serve as the association’s president and CEO, effective Sept. 6, 2011. Little succeeds John F. Sturm who led the association for 16 years and previously announced his retirement.

          Grau joined Cars.com last fall to lead a team of 70 engineers with an annual budget of $11 million. (This article makes no mention of how much his current budget is, but it refers to Cars.com as having 750 employees.)

          “Performance, security and the ability to display the right content quickly and seamlessly are crucial,” the article quoted Grau. “It’s what differentiates a company.”

Silverman was with EBay from 2003 through 2008, and was involved with several acquisitions including Loquo in Spain and Gumtree in the U.K. He served on the three-member board of directors of Craigslist Inc. after EBay founder Pierre Omidyar left the board, and he was named as a defendant in the EBay vs. Craigslist lawsuit. He testified at the 2009 hearing in that suit in Wilmington, Del. (EBay owns approximately a one-quarter stake in Craigslist. The suit later ended with a ruling that was essentially a draw. A separate lawsuit filed by Craigslist against EBay is still pending in San Francisco.)

Silverman has served as CEO of Shopping.com, an EBay site, and Skype while EBay was prepping it for its spin-off. Before EBay, he was cofounder and CEO of Evite, an event-planning site. After Silverman left EBay, he was “executive in residence” at Greylock Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has invested in Facebook, Pandora, Groupon, LinkedIn, Zipcar and others.

Here’s the news release.

Dahl has worked with a wide variety of clients including Rapid Tech, Jenny Craig, City National Bank and ConAgra. He’ll be responsible for strategic planning and brand building at Adicio, including the launch of enhancements to its careers, motors and real estate products.

“With the large number of product innovations we are rolling out, such as mobile, faceted search and our recent launch into the Hispanic market with our new relationship with ImpreMedia, we’ll be able to use his diverse business experience and strategic marketing ability to introduce new products and solutions to our media clients,” said Rick Miller, Adicio founder.

Dahl has masters degrees in organization development and spiritual psychology.

          — Daniel Greenberg becomes chief marketing officer. He’s been CMO for TrialPay, a company that places targeted ads on a transactional platform, and Tumbleweed, and VP-marketing for Macrovision, AC Nielsen and Active Decisions.

          — Sherri Kahn, VP and GM of small business. She was VP of client experience at Charles Schwab, and also worked at Visa and Levi Strauss.

          — Carolyn Hughes, VP-people. (Didn’t that used to be HR?) She’s worked with Jobvite and SurveyMonkey, LiveOps and Overture / Yahoo.

          — Suresh “DP” Duddi, VP-engineering. He’s worked for LiveOps, Microsoft, Tellme and Netscape.

           (We’ve gotta wonder: How many of them found their jobs through SimplyHired. And we’re betting: None.)

          They join Gautam Godhwani, CEO and co-founder and the rest of his execs.

           SimplyHired now operates in 23 countries, in 12 languages, and has 8 million “active” jobs. (We tried to determine how they define “active,” but couldn’t find it on the site and their PR rep was unavailable.) It says it reaches 16 million unique visitors each month.

          The company also offers “Job-a-matic,” a hosted job board software tool, and custom job widgets through a job search API.

          Taylor, who founded the site in 2006 after leaving Monster Worldwide and Monster.com, thought it was going to be the next big site — a Facebook for baby boomers and seniors, as it were. But it never took off, and I was in the audience at a public gathering a few years back when Taylor admitted it was a failure and was up for sale. Obviously it took him a while to find a buyer at the right price. The terms weren’t disclosed. The news release announcing the acquisition, said Eons.com had 800,000 registered members.

          Tributes.com, the obituary site which Taylor launched as a direct knock-off of Legacy.com, had been part of Eons but was spun off in February 2008 after a $4.2 million capital raise.

         The announcement from Eons.com is available in our news release section to the right.

Corken, now COO at Total Attorneys, was VP of operations at Cars.com for more than six years. He was responsible for account management, customer service, ad operations among other activities. He has both a BBA and an MBA from Notre Dame.