Yahoo Ad Exec Bails On Yahoo for Metrics Company Quantcast

(MoneyWatch)  Todd Teresi, a ten-year veteran over at Yahoo, has jumped ship from the company to join up with metrics company Quantcast as its Chief Revenue Officer.

Teresi, who was most recently the head of the network business unit at Yahoo, will begin at Quantcast starting September 1st. Quantcast, which uses more granular census-style reporting to measure website traffic, has seen a total of $26 million in investment. The company is going up against some serious heavyweights, Neilsen and comScore, both of whom are firmly established leaders within the marketspace. And Quantcast's major selling point -- it's free to publishers -- is somewhat tarnished by the fact that Google Analytics is also free. And while Google sells ads, Quantcast doesn't. When asked by Ad Age what, exactly, is the business of Quantcast, Teresi's response doesn't exactly inspire confidence:

"We're not going into the ad-network business, so to speak," Mr. Teresi said. "We look at how we enable the existing players to have a better digital-advertising opportunity."

Clear as mud? The company said an actual product rollout would happen within the year. CEO Konrad Feldman said Quantcast's business is built on the idea that display should eventually be as targeted as search ads.

"The tailoring of content and media to individuals should apply to all aspects of advertising, not just the bottom of the funnel," he said. "We operate in unit-based media economy where everyone gets the same content and sees the same ad. We're moving to an impression-based economy. We'll provide the platform that will enable the industry to do that. And as we introduce those sorts of services, we'll charge for them."

So why would he leave Yahoo for uncharted waters? Valleywag guesses it was corporate rivalry that forced Teresi out, writing:

But we're still betting that when Teresi saw top management's new favorite exec former Right Media CEO Mike Walrath was moving to the Bay Area, Teresi went back and listened to a few old saved messages from a headhunter or two.

Which is possible. More likely, I think, is the miasma of failure hanging over Yahoo, and Teresi's desire to be out of it for good. Ten years at Yahoo would mean Teresi watched Yahoo's slow motion slide into decline, without any strong plans as to how to pull itself back into shape.