The post-Terry Semel era at Yahoo sees a shakeup at the top of its cross-platform, North America sales team, as Wenda Harris Millard moves from the portal company to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Yahoo Sales Chief Joins Martha Stewart

Did Millard jump or was she pushed? Millard had been Yahoo’s chief sales officer, and a member of Yahoo for six years. Yahoo announced her departure in a statement, and the elevation of David Karnstedt to head of a combined search and display advertising sales unit.

The text regarding Millard’s departure in Yahoo’s statement bears the sort of clues that one of Semel’s top sales recruits had the door held wide open for her to exit:

As part of the reorganization, Wenda Millard, Yahoo!’s Chief Sales Officer in the US will be leaving the company effective immediately.

(Gregory Coleman, Yahoo!’s EVP of Global Sales) added, “While Wenda was a big contributor to our success in the past, the industry has shifted and requires a different set of skills to take the business forward. We appreciate her dedication during her years of service and wish her well in the next chapter of her career.”

A “different set of skills” sounds like a back-handed swipe when one takes a peek at Millard’s experience. This is from her now-purged bio on Yahoo’s management page:

A seasoned executive with over twenty-five years of publishing and advertising experience, Millard was formerly Chief Internet Officer at Ziff Davis Media and president of Ziff Davis Internet. Previously, she was executive vice president of DoubleClick, where she was responsible for establishing the DoubleClick brand and oversaw the operations of DoubleClick Media.

Here is what Paid Content reported on Millard’s new job; Millard has been a member of the Martha Stewart board of directors prior to this:

Wenda Harris Millard