Turner Broadcasting shakes up sales team

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A recent shake-up at Turner Broadcasting’s sales research department has led to the departure of two senior executives at the cable programming giant.

Exiting at Turner are Stacey Schulman and Katie Larkin. Schulman, who at one time was a very prominent advertising executive known for her forecasts on the television industry, had been a senior vice president at Turner for the last four years. Larkin has held several senior positions at Turner’s sales unit. Taking over Turner’s ad sales research unit is Gregg Liebman, who previously had been a senior vice president of ad sales for CNN.

The moves are significant for Time Warner Inc.’s Turner because they come as one of the company’s highest-regarded executives -- Linda Yaccarino -- left as head of Turner’s ad sales to join Comcast’s NBCUniversal as president of cable entertainment and digital ad sales. A replacement for Yaccarino has not been named yet. Yaccarino, Schulman and Larkin were three of Turner’s more senior female executives.

The exit of Larkin, who spent almost 30 years at Turner, was particularly tough for her colleagues to swallow, some of whom started a petition to try to save her job, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. A Turner spokeswoman declined to comment on the petition or the executive shifts.

-- Joe Flint