• Bloomberg, Friday, December 4, 2009 2:48 PM

Continuing his crusade to put AOL back on the right track, chief exec Tim Armstrong is talking up the soon-to-be-independent company's 100 million monthly unique visitors, and its ability to reach multiple audiences with one ad buy. In other words, the strategy is all about content, but as Bloomberg notes, AOL already tried that and failed. Still, a year ago, AOL licensed as much as 80% of its content, while, today, the company says it generates 80% of it.

To succeed, "Tim needs to articulate the value of AOL," Robert W. Pittman, a former AOL Time Warner chief operating officer tells Bloomberg. "He needs a strong selling proposition." To do that, Armstrong recently hired the ad firm Leo Burnett, which initially conducted surveys among 5,000 people aged 18 to 65 to learn where the company really stands in a world where perception is reality. According to Bloomberg, Armstrong has taken much of his road map from the Apple recovery, which he sums up as: "New products and services that people find necessary."

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