The news that Jerry Yang would be stepping aside as CEO of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) cheered investors, but online ad industry execs aren’t sure much has changed. And while shareholders would be thrilled by a Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) takeover, advertisers and publishers can’t tell if that will ultimately prove positive either. In essence, there’s a lot that’s right about Yahoo—a strong consumer brand with popular sites and social net tools—but the company has been so unfocused for so long, no quick turnaround is expected. Some ad industry comments:

-- Where it started going wrong: Rob Norman, CEO, GroupM: Yahoo started going awry when it tried to compete head-to-head with the entertainment industry. When Terry Semel, a Warner Bros. exec for over two decades, was brought in back in April 2001, followed three years later with the hiring of former TV exec Lloyd Braun to run the Yahoo Media Group, the company’s perspective started getting muddled. Then, when Dan Rosensweig, former Yahoo COO and currently being mentioned as Yang’s possible successor, and former chief sales officer Wenda Harris Millard, left the company, they took Yahoo’s commercial intelligence with them. Norman: ”The zenith of Yahoo’s relationship with advertisers was when Wenda was there. Both she and Dan had highly commercial mindsets and realized the value of the ‘big reach meeting big brand’ concept of Internet ad space. My sense is that Jerry is essentially a technology person, and a brilliant one. He’s a great guiding spirit, and could be a great chairman, but he’s not a Steve Ballmer or Dan Rosensweig or Eric Schmidt. He’s not a great CEO.”

-- Yahoo’s value: Norman added that from an ad industry standpoint, Yahoo is still highly relevant to marketers and agencies by dint of its enormous reach. Yahoo has more e-mail accounts than everyone else, more impressions, more photos uploaded on Flickr, and therefore reports of its death are grossly premature. “My sense is that a new CEO can connect with advertisers and connect its product strategy.”

-- Leadership vacuum: One online publisher, who didn’t want to be identified, agreed with Norman that Yahoo has enormous reach, but questioned its value. ”Yahoo mail is not going to do squat for you as an advertiser. Yahoo News and other parts of the portal are interesting properties, but the leadership vacuum—which existed long before Jerry—could never figure out what Yahoo was at its core. Is Yahoo a bunch of disparate items cobbled together within an ad network model? Maybe. But how far can you take that? Whoever ends up there, it’s not going to be a quick fix. From a company strategy perspective, they’re built the same way today as they were five years ago. The next CEO will have to take it apart and put it back together.” More after the jump

Photo Credit: Yodel Anecdotal

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The Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) board has a decision to make, nevermind Yang’s still-large shadow over it. More on some of our contenders here. RSS readers will have to click through.

• Jerry Yang To Step Down As Soon As Yahoo Board Finds Replacement
• Yahoo React: Analysts Expect Board To Get Aggressive On MSFT, AOL Deal
• Yahoo CEO Search: Some Possible Names: Miller, Chernin, Freston, Rosensweig and Others
• Yahoo CEO Search: Obama-Like Immediate Priorities
• Yahoo And Yang’s Greatest Hits: History In Links

Jonathan Leess, president of CBS (NYSE: CBS) Local TV’s digital media group is packing it in at the end of the year, TVWeek reports. Leess was tasked with helping shift the culture of CBS (and its local stations) from just producing TV content to a constant stream of TV, mobile and Web-based news. During his tenure, visitors have gone from watching fewer than 1 million video streams per month to 25 million per month, and one of the more initiatives he spearheaded was a hyperlocal ad network. CBS didn’t immediately announce the name of his replacement (or whether they’d be naming one at all) and Leess said he expected to continue working in digital media.

• @ LATV Festival: ‘Content Is King, But Distribution Brings The Bling’

Home improvement and contractor online listings and review service Angie’s List has picked up $18 million in venture debt from Lighthouse Capital Partners. It’s the second double-digit round of funding the Indianapolis-based company has received just this year—Battery Ventures invested $35 million in the service for a minority stake in April.

Angie’s List expanded from covering just home-focused companies like plumbers to health care providers in March, and will use the new funds to scale out to other categories and internationally. It also is a major underwriter of shows on NPR and other public radio, and that probably takes a chunk of its money. Users pay a membership fee to access company listings, and its closest competitor is IAC’s free site Service Magic (which lets contractors bid to win homeowners’ projects) and InsiderPages, also owned by IAC (NSDQ: IACI). All told, Angie’s List has secured $65 million in investments since its launch in 1995. Release. 

• Local Service Reviews Site Angie’s List Raises $35 Million Funding