Classifieds search-engine Oodle has hired former Knight Ridder publishing executive Lem Lloyd as Vice President of Sales and Business Development. In this new role, Lloyd will be charged with growing traffic and usage to Oodle’s classifieds listings network through partnerships and distribution deals. Lloyd will also be responsible for generating revenue across the various vertical categories for Oodle and its partners.

While at Knight Ridder, Lloyd oversaw the print and online classified businesses for the media company’s 31 newspapers and websites, as well as its sales partnerships with such sites as CareerBuilder.com, Cars.com and Apartments.com. In addition, Lloyd was in charge of Knight Ridder’s online national sales and its Real Cities Network, an advertising network consisting of some 130 websites, including sites owned by such publishers as E.W. Scripps, Media General and MediaNews Group. As a former head of business development, Lloyd forged distribution and content deals with such companies as AOL, Yahoo, Marketwatch, ESPN, AT&T, Sprint, Cingular, Palm and USAToday.

http://www.oodle.com