Some Big Exits At Millennial Media; Razorfish CEO Tom Adamski Passes Away

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Riding Off Into The Sunset (Again)

Well, that didn’t take long. In the wake of the completion of Millennial Media’s sale to AOL, CEO Michael Barrett, President Jason Kelly and SVP of business services Marc Theermann have all formally exited the company. Read the SEC filing. If it feels like you’ve heard this one before, recall that Barrett, Kelly and Theermann all held senior roles with Admeld before Google bought and absorbed that company.

Moment Of Silence

Razorfish global CEO Tom Adamski has passed away after a battle with cancer. Adamski was 43 years old and sat on Publicis Groupe’s P12 executive committee of advisers to CEO Maurice Levy. He was a veteran of digital agencies including Rosetta and Level Studios, overseeing work for the likes of Apple, Samsung and Aetna. Levy said in a statement, “Tom was an important part of the Publicis family for many years … and left a significant mark on the Groupe. While we mourn the loss of Tom, we honor his joie de vivre.” More from Ad Age’s Alexandra Bruell.

Tremors Along Digital Fault Lines

A pair of New York Times reporters dug into the ongoing tug-of-war between apps and the web, where publishers may feel more like the rope than the tuggers. The difficulty comes from major platforms like Google and Apple, which tweak their products and algorithms to prod users (and therefore publishers) in one direction or another. Creative agencies also struggle as the need for personalization across fragmented channels becomes more pressing (a 30-second pre-roll, a three-second silent autoplay ad, a vertical five-second skippable pre-roll and so on). It’s important to bear in mind that the kings and queens in this cold war have considerable skin in the game too. After all, Google’s Chrome, Gmail, YouTube and Maps are some of the most downloaded apps ever, and Facebook’s desktop site is second only to Google in total traffic. Read on.

A Stream … Or A Trickle?

YouTube has signed some early content partners for an upcoming streaming subscription service (for around $10 per month) but those players are only reluctantly on board, Mike Shields and Shalini Ramachandran write for The Wall Street Journal. Media partners, including Turner Cable, NBC and Fox Sports, will get 55% of overall subscription revenue, split based on their share of video viewership. The WSJ cites some media execs who feel “strong-armed by YouTube into participating.” If the service doesn’t perform look for those currently anonymous naysayers to speak up. More.

New Yahoo Exodus?

A pair of senior defections raise the spectre of a new talent retention crisis at Yahoo. The company’s chief development officer, Jacqueline Reses, and its marketing partnerships leader, Lisa Licht, have flown the coop. Re/code’s Kara Swisher says the luster is coming off CEO Marissa Mayer’s company turnaround. More. The exits follow some on the ad platforms side, including Ned Brody and Scott Burke.

But Wait, There’s More!