NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- AOL promoted Lynda Clarizio to lead its division selling ads across the Web, as the Time Warner Inc. (TWX) unit continues to remake its advertising business.

Clarizio replaces her boss, Curt Viebranz, who has left the company. Viebranz is the former chief executive of Tacoda, an online advertising business AOL bought last year.

The promotion comes at a crucial time for AOL, which has placed a renewed emphasis on becoming a hub for ad sales across the Internet. Parent company Time Warner plans to sell AOL’s Web-access business, a move many believe is a precursor to a sale or split of all or parts of the Internet unit.

Clarizio has led AOL’s Advertising.com, which matches buyers of online advertising to thousands of Web sites with extra ad space to sell. Advertising.com is one of AOL’s most successful businesses, but overall AOL’s advertising revenue lately has lagged the industry.

AOL’s challenge under Clarizio’s watch will be to unify several advertising businesses, including Tacoda and Quigo, it bought in recent months. AOL’s ad businesses compete with increasingly powerful rivals, particularly if Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) succeeds in taking over Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).

“Our strategy is to be able to offer the best possible solutions for advertisers,” Clarizio said in an interview. “If we can drive greater alignment within this organization, we should see an improvement in the numbers.”

Tags: , AOL, interactive media

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.