My last post on Spot Runner saw a range of critical remarks about the health of the company in the wake of some announced layoffs. It’s unclear what’s true in my mind, given the mix of things I’ve heard.
Today the company announced that it had hired two executives in the local marketing services group: Jon Rosen as vice president of Sales and Business Development and Elizabeth Carrasco as vice president of Online Engineering.
According to a note I recevied, “Rosen will lead Spot Runner’s efforts to market its products and services to local businesses and national companies seeking a local footprint while Carrasco will oversee the engineering team in developing and refining advertising technologies to address the needs of locally-focused businesses.”
Meanwhile former Spot Runner exec. Tim Lambert joins Jobvite as Chief Revenue Officer. Lambert was with Yahoo! before Spot Runner and Knight Ridder Digital before that.
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Joanne Bradford has left Spot Runner and joined Yahoo! as head of ad sales. Before Spot Runner she was at MSN. Bradford was hired in March of this year to lead a national sales effort at Spot Runner.
It’s unclear whether these departures are part of an adjustment or change in strategy or signal that the company is in trouble. According to AllThingsD, Bradford left Spot Runner to replace David Karnstedt, who is leaving Yahoo!.
Screenwerk 
September 9, 2008 at 8:32 pm
It looks like investors and bloggers alike drank the Spotrunner cool aid. I’d ask to look at their books before putting any money in this. What an embarrassment. Even their friends at Microsoft won’t touch their asking price, and their competitor Cheap TV Spots ran rings around them for quality and with lower air time rates. Maybe Spot Runner is the 100 million dollar boondoggle that ushers in the next bust. Are we techs, or are we sheep?
September 9, 2008 at 10:55 pm
As it turns out, Agency Spy was right about the rumors of financial trouble at Spot Runner and Bradford’s absences from the Spot Runner offices. The rumors were true – Spot Runner is imploding. Pre-made ads just don’t work for the web or TV. I wonder what the exit strategy is now, since they’re burning up their cash.