BusinessWeek has never really bounced back from the ad recession of six years ago, with ad pages still way off, and now it's on the hunt for a new head of sales who can package and sell both its print magazine and its web site.

Geoffrey Dodge, its publisher since 2004, is leaving to join a software company after being passed over for president of the magazine back in April. The move comes as little surprise.

Who will replace Dodge is the bigger issue.

The magazine has begun the search, and it says it will look both inside and out for that new person. “There’s no timeline," a spokesperson tells Media Life. "We're just going to start a search. We’ll select a replacement when the best candidate comes along."

That new publisher will have a job on his or her hands. Through the first half of 2007, BusinessWeek pages were down 12.6 percent, to 1,097.15, or about two-thirds the pages of category leader Forbes and just behind Fortune.

Moreover, that slide comes as the entire category suffers, with little prospect for a turnaround as the internet continues to drain off ad dollars.

Overall, the category is down 10.3 percent in pages for the first six months of the year. Just two of the nine titles, Inc. and Fast Company, reported page gains, 3.9 percent and 8.4 percent respectively, after years of declines.

Forbes reported the smallest decline, 3.4 percent, to 1,496.48 pages. Fortune was down 17.5 percent, Fortune Small Business was down 18.2 percent, and Business 2.0 was off 34.1 percent, amid reports that it will soon be folded or sold off.

Key for the new publisher will be selling BusinessWeek and Businessweek.com as a package. Just yesterday, BusinessWeek president Keith Fox merged the online and print sales forces.  This fall, as part of a major redesign, BusinessWeek will merge its print and online editorial staffs.

But magazine will have a lot of catching up to do, particularly competing against Forbes and Fortune, both of which have far larger web presences.

Even in the darkest days of the ad recession, Forbes was investing heavily in its web site, at a time when BusinessWeek was trimming back. In early 2006, Fortune's web site became part of CNNMoney.com, a megasite that also includes the sites of Money, Fortune Small Business and Business 2.0.

According to a July Comscore analysis of web traffic, CNNMoney.com ranks fourth in traffic, with Forbes.com in sixth place, right behind Dow Jones. BusinessWeel.com shows up at No. 13

Dodge rose to publisher and senior vice present of BusinessWeek in November 2004 from associate publisher. He initially came to the magazine from Media Space Solutions, a newspaper ad placement company, and before that he had sold for Money and Fortune.

Dodge is joining Salesforce, a software developer, as a senior vice president.

Dodge had been in the running for the post of president of BusinessWeek but lost out to Fox, until recently an executive in its book division.

Fox joined BusinessWeek in 2000 as senior vice president of marketing and business development, where, among other things, he launched BusinessWeek TV, a syndicated personal finance show.