MySpace inches toward Madison Avenue credibility
News Corp.'s hire of a Yahoo veteran, Valeh Vakili, reported yesterday, as MySpace's senior vice president of sales strategy and operations could prove to be a coup. Madison Avenue only buys ads on News Corp's social network MySpace inventory for their clients "if they have to," one agency exec told me in August. MySpace ads are seen as spammy and unattractive, and agencies don't want to damage their clients' brands by association.But another problem for MySpace has been its ad sales team, which a different agency exec complained to me last month is still full of pre-News Corp. amateurs. MySpace ad sales team in New York needs "a connected, pro leader" whom the agencies know and trust, this source said. "There is nothing so valuable as a professional sales force" — one like Yahoo's. Vakili is the third Yahoo exec to join MySpace in recent weeks.