Joanne Bradford’s departure from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has been rumored for a while (we got a not-true comment from MSN when we asked back in late November last year): Now the news that Bradford is leaving Microsoft and MSN, and joining Santa Monica-based online TV ad development and distribution firm SpotRunner, as EVP of National Marketing Services, starting in late March. Bradford will be responsible for leading the business unit focused on national advertisers. (We have the internal MSN memo here.)

Bradford was the corporate VP and chief media officer of MSN Media Network, and was responsible for MSN’s high profile in the advertising community. Prior to CMO at MSN, she was Microsoft’s corporate VP of global sales and marketing and chief media revenue officer for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions across all Microsoft properties. More in the PDF release here.

This comes after another acquisition by SpotRunner earlier this month: it bought Weblistic, a provider of online marketing service for small businesses. Spot Runner has been heavily backed, having most recently raised $40 million from CBS (NYSE: CBS), WPP and Interpublic in 2006, for a total raise of about $60 million.

• Spot Runner Acquires Online Marketer Weblistic
• Web-based TV Ad Buying Firm Spot Runner Acquires Production Network GlobeShooter
• Web-based TV Ad Buying Firm Spot Runner Gets $40 Million Funding