Not even The Spirit knows

Veterans of CNN.com and NYTimes.com are partnering on an enigmatic venture related to online ad buying and selling, reports ClickZ.

The unnamed firm is the product of former NYT Digital VP Jason Krebs and former CNN.com SVP David Payne. While details were not divulged, the pair described the project as more grease for the display ad market.

Their purported role shall be to increase efficiencies for large advertisers and publishers with display ad inventory. The hope is to maintain human relationships in the transactional process instead of losing that entirely to bids, networks and other automations.

A planned 20 staff members will be spread between sales and technical duties. No timeline was offered for a formal debut.