USCP names chief of local digital sales, Yahoo pact

Travis Fore will head up U.S. Community Publishing's local digital sales, including the recently announced local advertising partnership between Gannett and Yahoo, according to a GCI statement today.

Fore (left) was senior vice president of sales and service at Network Solutions, which helps small businesses register website names and use the web for marketing.

GCI's statement does not say whether Fore is occupying a new position, or filling an existing one. (And, as with all of Corporate's communications, the statement omits an essential biographical detail: his age.)

Fore will report to Michelle Krans, senior vice president of strategy and development for USCP, which comprises Gannett's U.S. community newspapers, the company's single-biggest and most financially challenged division.

Of note, Gannett's statement says Fore "will be supported by a start-up team, including field sales managers as well as key managers responsible for retention, marketing and strategy." It's unclear how many of those team employees will be new hires, however.

His appointment follows reader speculation on Gannett Blog about 40 or so Corporate positions that are being created for ad fulfillment, according to Anonymous@6:18 a.m. on Aug. 6. Later that day, another anonymous post, possibly by the same reader, said: "Fort Myers is moving offices and creating room for 40 people who are not now working in the building. Rumor has it that these are for Yahoo people."

Earlier: GCI names mobile advertising sales executive

What do you know about staffing for the new Gannett-Yahoo ad sales partnership? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.