AOL Plans Revamp, Shake Up Management - Reports
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The America Online unit of Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is reorganizing itself into four operational units to improve decision making, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Ted Leonsis, one of AOL's top leaders in the past 13 years, will shed his day-to-day management duties in January, but will remain vice chairman of the Dulles, Virginia, Web portal and Internet services provider. Leonsis is seen as having a steady hand in keeping AOL afloat during rough times and for envisioning and implementing dramatic strategic changes. By retaining his vice chairman role, he will continue to be "a strategist and visionary for AOL" and a mentor to executives, AOL said in a statement Friday. He steps away from active management at a critical time for AOL, as the Time Warner subsidiary continues to morph into anÂ advertising-drivenÂ Web portalÂ and moves away from its subscription-based Internet access model. This shift, in the works for years, began in earnest in mid-2005 and got its biggest public boost last month when AOL announced it wouldÂ provide for freeÂ practically all of its content and services. Viewed as a bold jump without a net, this decision will accelerate the shrinking of AOL's Internet access business, whose subscription rolls have been deflating for several years. It remains to be seen if the advertising revenue will grow enough to justify the gamble. As president of AOL's Audience business, Leonsis oversees AOL's advertising operations, whose success is mandatory for the company to survive and thrive. He will relinquish this role effective Jan. 1, 2007. Already, AOL announced its intention toÂ slash up to 5,000 jobsÂ worldwide, or just over a quarter of its workforce, anticipating the shrinkage of its access business. As if the dramatic business-model shift wasn't enough of a challenge, AOL executives have had to wipe a lot of pie from their faces in recent months due to a series of disconcerting bungles. The most serious one was the public release last month of about 20 million search records from about 658,000 of its members. AÂ storm of criticism hit AOLÂ over this faux pas, which the company acknowledged was a lapse in judgment. Although AOL didn't disclose member names, it grouped each person's records with a unique number, making it possible to see what each individual searched for. The data included search queries, as well as Web sites the members clicked on. In June and July, the company faced a public relations nightmare after a member called AOL to cancel his subscription and the customer service representative resisted in disrespectful ways. The member posted a recording of the call on his blog. It ignited such a firestorm that the story got picked up by news outlets. Last month, StopBadware.org labeled the AOL 9.0 desktop software application as "badware," because, among other things, it installs additional software without informing users and forces them to take certain actions. In this context, Leonsis has decided he wants to devote more time to other pursuits in which he is already involved, like ownership of professional sports teams, filmmaking, philanthropy and venture capital investing. Leonsis joined AOL in 1993, when AOL acquired Redgate Communications, a digital marketing company he founded. "AOL is in great hands, and it is absolutely on the right path,â Leonsis said in Friday's statement.
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(InfoWorld) - AOL launched a significant upgrade of AOL News on Tuesday, but it had to turn off some new features so that the site could handle a heavy flow of users. AOL News, a news aggregation site, became slow and unavailable in the afternoon for what an AOL spokeswoman said was a "brief period of time." At mid-afternoon, the site either didn't load or loaded very slowly for several IDG News Service staffers located in different parts of the U.S. AOL expects to reinstate the removed features progressively this evening and during the day Wednesday, the spokeswoman said. At press time, AOL News didn't seem to be experiencing any performance problems. The redesign gave AOL News a blog format that combines traditional news sources, AOL programming, and social news features, such as giving readers the ability to rate and share articles and post comments. Some of the social news features had to be pulled off the site at different points in the morning and afternoon to accommodate heavy traffic, said Lewis D'Vorkin, senior vice president of AOL News & Sports. He stressed that the revamped AOL News is in a beta phase, during which AOL is closely monitoring usage of all sections and features of the site and making the necessary adjustments. "We had large traffic today, some big stories, so we removed some of those [social news] features to better the performance of the site," D'Vorkin said. The site currently does have a feed from the company's Netscape social news site, which offers users a wide variety of interactive features. Having a hot new Web site crushed by a flood of Web traffic is almost a point of pride with the Web 2.0 set, but a company the size of AOL should be able to do better, said Rich Miller, an analyst with Web analysis firm Netcraft. "They've got so much infrastructure and have launched large services before, so if they're having trouble, I wouldn't be bowled over by their reliability," he said. Asked if AOL was caught by surprise by the intensity of Tuesday's traffic, D'Vorkin replied that it was not. "Nothing surprises me and nothing catches me off guard," he said. The AOL News redesign is groundbreaking as a "mass market" news site that adopts a blog format with a broad set of interactive, Web 2.0, social news features, he said. It brings together features that AOL has been testing and providing for several years, he said. "We have developed a very unique site," he said. "It's exciting to learn and present news in a vastly different way." Robert McMillan in San Francisco contributed to this story.
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NEW YORK -- AOL is getting a software makeover, its first since deciding to make more of its services available for free in the chase for online advertising dollars.
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The revamped software for AOL's proprietary online service tackles spam and other Internet security issues.
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AOL on Wednesday plans to launch a new  version of its software that lets users access their e-mail,  instant messaging, search and media on the same screen.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo Inc. will undergo its most extensive shake-up in more than five years, hoping to snap out of a malaise that has ravaged its stock and provoked one of its own top executives to bluntly question the Internet powerhouse's direction.
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After users object to its extreme makeover, AOL's Netscape.com will revert to being a traditional Web portal.
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Trying to better compete with rivals Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc.'s president announced in a staff memo Wednesday its plans to reorganize the company's leadership.
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The Wall Street Journal, already roiled by a proposed takeover by Rupert Murdoch, will detail today a major newsroom shake-up, including the reassignment and replacement of several top editors, officials there say.
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(InfoWorld) - AOL on Monday confirmed to its employees the rumored departure of several senior executives and announced a reshuffling of top-tier management duties in a memo penned by Randy Falco,Â the new chief executive officer. Five high-level executives are leaving, all of whom reported directly to Jonathan Miller, the former CEO whoÂ was abruptly fired in mid-NovemberÂ to the surprise of many. Four of them figured prominently in Miller's strategy,Â outlined in September, to complete AOL's radical transformation from a provider of dial-up Internet access that charged for most of its content and services to an open and free Web portal focused on online advertising revenue. Miller had been praised for early success in transitioning the company to an ad-driven model, and some AOL observers are concerned that the shakeup could destroy the momentum he built up. In particular, some view with skepticism that Miller has been replaced by a TV industry veteran and not an Internet specialist. Falco was president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group. In Monday's memo, obtained by IDG News Service, Falco praised Miller's plan but said it needed to be "tighter, clearer and better focused on operations" with a greater focus on execution and with more accountability "built into the organization." "In such crucial areas as our speed to market and innovating new products, we have much work ahead of us," Falco wrote. Heading out the door are Jim Bankoff, executive vice president of consumer and publisher services, and Joe Redling, president of AOL Mobile, customer management and paid services, and CEO of AOL International. Joining them will be John McKinley,Â whom AOL had already acknowledged was leaving. Randy Boe, executive vice president for consumer advocacy and privacy, has also resigned, as well as John Buckley, executive vice president of corporate communications. Falco's memo doesn't say when these men will leave. All decided to resign on their own accord, sources said. "AOL has just gone through elements of a significant reorganization, and I know that the departure of well-respected colleagues and friends is not easy for anyone here," Falco wrote. Eight executives will report directly to Falco, including Ted Leonsis, AOL vice chairman; Ron Grant, president and chief operating officer; and Steve Swad, chief financial officer. Grant, a former senior VP of operations at parent company Time Warner Inc. who arrived after Miller's departure, will oversee AOL's business units: products, programming, platforms, AOL media networks, paid services, and international. The new CTO, Balan Nair, will also report to him, "because smoothly integrating our technology resources into the business units has been such a priority," Falco wrote. Kevin Conroy, who reported directly to Miller, will be in charge of products, including AOL Mail, the AOL PC software, portals, video and video search, storage, safety and security products, AIM and mobile products. Bill Wilson will head AOL's programming, an area Bankoff ran, while Falco is still looking for someone to oversee AOL's platforms, including the search engines, e-commerce offerings and online mapping site MapQuest. Mike Kelly, who also reported directly to Miller, will continue to head AOL Media Networks, which includes the key ad sales operation. Kim Partoll, who reported to the departing Redling, will continue in her role managing AOL's paid services. Another area Redling managed, international, still lacks a chief.
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For the most part, AOL's future plans are the same old story.
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Four top executives at AOL abruptly announced their intentions to leave the company yesterday, just days before new chief executive Randy Falco is expected to announce a major restructuring at the top.
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NEW YORK -- AOL will disband a unit that handled subscriptions and give product managers more autonomy over designing services for consumers as the company increases its emphasis on generating advertising revenue.
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Microsoft Corp  announced a  management shake-up at its loss-making online division on  Thursday, thrusting an outsider into a prominent position ahead  of a proposed merger with Yahoo Inc .
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America Online, the world's largest Internet service provider on Monday launched an overhauled online shopping center it hopes will help it keep pace with competitive offerings by Yahoo Inc., Google Inc.  and Shopping.com, executives said.
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AOL, the world's largest internet services provider, is to split into four separate divisions to cut red tape and boost profits.