Media Headliner: Chips sets Yahoo! on course for the mainstream.(Mark Chippendale joins Yahoo! Europe)

An apprenticeship in interactive advertising at Sky should serve Mark Chippendale well in his Yahoo! role, Jeremy Lee says.

In the same week that one old-timer from TV sales, Mark Howe, left his job, another, slightly younger one, Mark Chippendale, started in a new one.

Chippendale's return to the media industry has been a long time coming.

After all, it has been ten months since he walked (some say flounced) out of Sky, a company he had been with since its launch in 1990, without a job to go to. But after some searching, he has now returned in the newly created role of executive vice-president of media sales for Yahoo! Europe.

No-one was really surprised when Chippendale (who is more commonly known as 'Chips' in media circles) left Sky. 'Any of the broadcast directors around town would have put a year's salary on it,' one TV director says.

The reason behind his departure was clear …