SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)-Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) Chief Executive Carol Bartz said Wednesday that the Internet giant's 6% operating margin is "unacceptable" and she vowed to regain the respect the company has lost over the past several years.

"Today is the beginning of a journey back to respect," she said in an introductory presentation during the company's Analyst Day event webcast over the Internet.

A series of executives then took the stage to highlight the company's reach and scale as a media brand, as well as to discuss Yahoo's efforts to speed up the development of new technologies and products.

The company's chief financial officer, Tim Morse, was expected to provide more color on the company's financial situation when he takes the stage in the afternoon.

"The most important note thus far is Carol Bartz calling out the company's operating margin as unacceptable, which in our view suggests we will see margin expansion in 2010 regardless of revenue growth," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note.

Referring to ongoing questions about Yahoo's vision and direction, Bartz reiterated that the company shouldn't be thought of as a search or display company. She said Yahoo is a broad-based Internet technology company that competes with a wide range of content sites, including social network Facebook, news provider CNN, sports titan ESPN and gossip page TMZ.

Chief Technology Officer Ari Balogh said Yahoo's model is very simple: Engaging its broad audience and gathering insights about their behavior so the company can provide them with better online experiences and better targeted ads.

"We deliver that at scale; at a scale that very few can even conceive of," he said.

He added that Yahoo has the technology, talent and brand it needs to succeed. "This is all about how we execute," Balogh said.

Yahoo last week reported that its third-quarter profit surged due to cost cutting and asset sales, even as revenue fell 12% compared with a year ago. Relieved analysts said the results indicated that Bartz has made some headway since taking over the company in January.

But Bartz, who was named CEO amidst the worst advertising slump in decades, still has to prove she can reinvigorate the struggling Internet giant and convince investors, employees and customers that she has a strong vision for the company.

Shares in Yahoo were down 3.3% at $16.14 in midday trading.

-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; scott.morrison@dowjones.com