AOL Revamps Services, Management

Tim-ArmstrongIs AOL planning another corporate reorganization? Yes, but as a company spokesperson tells Online Media Daily, the latest changes shouldn't come as news to anyone.

This week, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told Bloomberg that the company plans to combine its dial-up Internet access business with its Web services, including AOL Instant Messenger.

According to an AOL spokesperson, the company announced the changes last month upon news that Brad Garlinghouse, president of AOL’s applications and commerce group, was on his way out.

AOL CFO Artie Minson was tapped last month to take over Garlinghouse’s responsibilities, at least on an interim basis. 

Garlinghouse previously worked at Yahoo, where he famously penned a critical memo to management. In what came to be known as the “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” Garlinghouse said Yahoo had spread itself too thinly across many businesses. 

Changes continue apace at AOL. Last week, Jim Norton agreed to head up ad sales at AOL. Effective immediately, Norton is now responsible for sales across all of AOL’s owned-and-operated properties, including AOL.com, The Huffington Post, Engadget, Stylelist and MapQuest.

In addition, Norton will lead sales across all cross-platform channels, including the display-centric “Project Devil” initiative, video and mobile.

Turning around a series of disappointing quarters, AOL recently reported an 8% jump in third-quarter ad sales, which it attributed to a dual strategy of third-party network sales and enhanced premium display ad sales related to Project Devil.

While the ad revenue surge came amid a third-quarter earnings release showing a 6% decline in AOL’s total revenues, the drop was mostly attributed to non-advertising sales-related areas, and its Web access subscriptions business in particular.

Putting the turnaround in the context of AOL’s disastrous marriage to (and divorce from) Time Warner, Norton told Online Media Daily: “We’ve done a lot of work with back-end legacy systems. It’s no secret that when you come out of a merger, there might be certain legacy systems that might not be best for everyone.”

Next story loading loading..