Digg hires sales chief from Yahoo
Social-media site announces has hired one of Yahoo's top salesmen as it seeks a path toward profitability.
Digg has hired one of Yahoo's top salesmen as its new head of sales, the social-media site said Tuesday.
Tom Shin, who had been at the Internet pioneer for seven years, will be responsible for developing Digg's advertising sales strategy and managing strategic relationships, including with Microsoft, the company said. At Yahoo, Shin oversaw product marketing for My Yahoo and Messenger, and was credited with helping Yahoo Mail's annual revenue grow from $20 million to more than $300 million.
Digg CEO Jay Adelson announced last week that the company would be hiring a new direct sales force and head of sales to drive the company to profitability this year. He also said that the partnership Digg has with Microsoft to sell standard advertising units will continue. Digg will also be launching higher-profile advertising programs--and features on the site to support them.
The company, which raised new capital and doubled in size in 2008, also announced layoffs last week, but Adelson said Digg's engineering and core development group wouldn't be affected. The cuts will come in areas "not core to our function. We'll be shifting some of that cost to a sales force," he said.
Shin is expected to join Digg in mid-February.