AOL ad chief retires again

Adman Robert Sherman, who came out of retirement to help the company improve advertising sales, will leave the company at the end of the month, according to America Online.

Reuters

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May 29, 2003 12:00 p.m. PT

2 min read

Robert Sherman, an advertising veteran whom AOL Time Warner wooed out of retirement to help get its advertising sales back on track, has resigned and will leave at the end of the month, a company representative said Tuesday.

Sherman came out of retirement at the behest of former AOL Time Warner Chief Operating Officer Robert Pittman, who resigned last year. Sherman initially worked at the media conglomerate's cable division to help improve advertising sales there. He then moved to the America Online unit last year, as president of its interactive marketing group. He has been working past his contract to help in its turnaround, said AOL spokeswoman Ruth Sarfaty.

"He's going back into retirement. He felt things were set on the right track," Sarfaty said.

No successor has yet been named for Sherman, she added.

Sherman, who was CEO of advertising agency Della Femina, Travisano, Sherman & Olken, founded and operated radio station holding companies and also held several key media and advertising positions.

While at AOL, Sherman reorganized the sales structure and tried to rebuild the company's relationships with advertising agencies, many of which were still stinging from what many said was the company's arrogance during the dot-com heyday.

AOL, the Internet service provider giant, has been struggling with a sharp slump in advertising, reporting a 42 percent decline from a year ago in the first quarter, and a shrinking dial-up Internet subscriber base, as well as federal probes into its accounting practices for some ad and commerce deals.

Last week, executives said AOL was on track to sell more advertising this year than last year and that it was on its way to building back its ad business, with more short-term deals.