• PaidContent.org, Monday, July 20, 2009 2:29 PM

In a lengthy interview with PaidContent.org's Staci Kramer, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong reveals his learnings from his first 100 days at the helm of the beleaguered Web giant, which is on the verge of separating from its parent company, Time Warner. At the top of the list is an expansion of AOL-owned content through its MediaGlow content network, followed by growing Advertising.com and its third party advertising network, pushing local content and services and mapping, focusing on AOL email, AIM and ICQ, and starting AOL Ventures, an incubator for strengthening unwanted properties the company may want to sell in the future.

During the interview, Armstrong discusses unwinding AOL's People Networks and Platform A; folding Bebo, the social network the company acquired for $850 million last year, into AOL Ventures; as well as TMZ's future and whether more layoffs are inevitable.

"A lot of people in the business world know the traditional AOL story [of the failed merger with Time Warner]; I think what people are missing is the real AOL story, which is what we're starting to tell and think about now," Armstrong says. Kramer asks how that differs from CEOs of AOL's past. "We're much more focused on the technology underneath the content than just the content," Armstrong says.

When he took over in April, AOL's strategy was People Networks, MediaGlow and Platform A. Armstrong says AOL is now ditching People Networks ("We're not combining instant messaging with social networking right now"), and "unwinding" Platform A, while focusing more on improving the underpinning technology behind MediaGlow, which remains a core part of the company's strategy.

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