10B
FEATURES
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY DECEMBER 2, 2006
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BUSINESS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2006
Yahoo's efforts confuse users
In hopes of getting more hits, Web site adds new product features
BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANFRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc. is tackling its most difficult challenge since the dot com bust with sweeping organizational changes aimed at cleaning up a mess of the Internet icon's own making.
The overhaul, announced Tuesday night, represents Yahoo's mea culpa for meandering aimlessly during the past year, to the chargin of investors and the delight of competitors like Google Inc, that lured away online traffic and advertisers.
Yahoo has fallen out of favor on Wall Street largely because Google
— the Internet's search leader — has done a far better job of figuring out which ads are most likely to elicit clicks. That action generates more profits for Google and its partners while keeping advertisers happy with a steady stream of prospective customers.
To compound its misery, yahoo has been introducing a mishmash of products with no clear strategy on how they blend into the rest of the mix on its Web site. The scattershot approach appears to have aggravated and confused many consumers who are gravitating to new Internet hot spots such as News Corp's MySpace.com and YouTube, which Google just bought for $1.76 billion.
Sunnyvale based Yahoo believes it can get back on track by consolidating its operations into three groups focused on its audience, advertising network and behind-the-scenes technology.
The shake-up will reshuffle top management, entrusting Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker to fix the problems beeing Yahoo's advertising system and opening a job for an executive who will be hired to guide efforts to make
Yahoo's Web site more useful and relevant.
At least two top executives won't be part of Yahoo's new agenda.
Lloyd Braun, a former television executive hired two years ago to run Yahoo's media division in Southern California, has already left the company. Dan Rosensweig, Yahoo's chief operating officer since 2002, will step down in March once the reorganization is complete.
Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel remains chief executive, although his job security and legacy at the company may be riding on how well this makeover pans out.
Once revered on Wall Street for reviving Yahoo after the dotcom meltdown, Semel has come under fire this year amid slowing profit growth that has battered the company's stock price.
Semel's fix-it strategy didn't impress investors. Wednesday Yahoo shares fell 57 cents to close at $26.86 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Yahoo's stock price has plunged by more than 30 percent so far this year, to wipe out nearly $20 billion in shareholder wealth.
The fallout might include pink slips for some of its 11,000 employees. Banc of America Securities analyst Brian Pitz predicted in a Wednesday research note that Yahoo will consider pruning its payrolls next year as part of an effort to boost its profits.
Standard & Poor's analyst Scott Kessler also thinks Yahoo might clean house in its media division now that Braun is gone. "You have to wonder about the long-term future there." Kessler said. "You could see some paring down there."
Yahoo spokeswoman Kelly Delaney declined to comment about the chances of future layoffs, but Semel downplayed the possibility in a statement posted on the company's Web site. "Let me stress that we're organizing the company for growth and are continuing to hire great talent," he wrote.
Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior vice president in charge of the company's communications products, made a case for 1,500 to 2,000 lavoffos in a recent memo that was leaked to the media.
"For far too many employees, there is another person with dramatically similar and overlapping responsibilities!" Garlinghouse wrote. "This slows us down and burdens the company with unnecessary costs."
That memo, which likened Yahoo's business recipe to peanut butter spread too thin over toast, foreshadowed some of the actions taken in Tuesday's shake-up.
But in his Web posting, Semel indicated that the reorganization began to take shape before Garlinghouse wrote his memo.
In an attempt to address it most pressing problem, Yahoo has been working on a series of improvements to its advertising formula.
After promising to unveil the advertising change by the crucial holiday shopping season, Yahoo encountered unexpected hiccups that delayed any financial gains until next year.
Decker, a former Wall Street analyst who has been Yahoo's CFO for six years, is being entrusted to make sure the advertising upgrades pay off.
The decision to put her in such a crucial job makes her a prime candidate to succeed the 63-year-old Semel.
"It's obvious Sue Decker is now the heir apparent." Kessler said. "I think (the board) may want to see how she does in an operational capacity before letting her move in as CEO"
NO ONE CAN OUTRUN THEIR DESTINY.
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designers earlier this year about the most influential fashion movies, and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was the No. 1 choice "My Fair Lady," also starring Audrey, was in the top 10.
(It was in "Breakfast at Tiffany" that Hepburn also wore the black plastic Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, ushering in a new look of eyewear that had largely relied on thin metallic frames until then.)
Classic idols still define trend standards
FASHION
"Audrey had a timeless quality," said Avril Graham, executive fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar, which recreated Audrey's look — pearls and all — on young actress Natalie Portman for a recent cover. "Anyone could wear that black dress now. It doesn't seem to be dated in any way."
NEW YORK — In an age when the word is grossly overused, they remain, incontrovertibly, icons: elegance embodied, high fashion at the dawn of the television era, with charmed lives and striking beauty.
IN THEATRES FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8
Celebrities fuel fashion — that comes as no surprise. But the women with the most influence over today's tastemakers aren't the ones on the covers of all those celebrity magazines.
BY SAMANTHA CRITCHELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
The patrician style of Main Line Philadelphia is defined by Grace. One of the world's most coveted
Instead, it's Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who continue to set the standard. Their names are short-hand for the looks that are at the root of modern style many years after their respective deaths.
It's not today's modern celebrities who are influencing designer's styles
handbags — the Hermes Kelly bag — is named after her, and that two-handles satchel has become a symbol of understated, ladly luxury.
When lackie was a Kennedy, she popularized the pillbox hat and skirt suits. When she was an Onassis, it was the glamorous oversized dark sunglasses worn with yacht-appropriate attire. The pearls and black dress that so many women use as their cocktail party uniform, that's all Audrey.
"Timeless" is the word that comes up again and again with designers, editors and fashion watchers when they talk about these women. And they do talk about them a lot.
The Givenchy black dress that she wore in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" a simple-but-elegant sleeveless sheath, was sold Tuesday to a telephone bidder at Christie's in London, fetching a shocking $807,000, almost six times the highest pre-sale estimate. Proceeds will go to the Indian relief charity City of Joy Aid.
The film series Grand Classics, in conjunction with American Express RED, polled fashion
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