Aol Re-org: Like Shuffl...

Aol is at it again. It is busy reorganizing and re-inventing itself while the world sits on the sidelines wondering where the whole thing is going to land. At least the dial-up business is going to be tucked away into another area of the company so we don’t have to watch that dry up and wither as well. According to Bloomberg AOL Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong plans to reorganize the company to combine its dial-up Internet access business with its Web services, including AOL Instant Messenger. The new AOL services group would be one of four business units to be created under the new structure, Armstrong said yesterday in an interview. The details will be presented to employees on Dec. 14, before the plan takes effect in January. The other three divisions will consist of advertising, local services and the Huffington Post media group, he said. Aol is an enigma wrapped in a puzzle while residing in a Rubik’s cube. No one can seem to figure out exactly what they are or when they might discover it themselves. They, along with Yahoo!, are remnants of the old guard of the Internet that has had trouble adapting to the rapid change the space has experienced over the past several years. Aol has placed an emphasis on local with Patch but how many of you are reading a local Patch for your local news? Please let us know! And then, of course, there was the acquisition of the online queen of using bloggers to make a fortune, Arianna Huffington. Could it finally end up that the real value of Aol is because they own HuffPo? What about TechCrunch? Can these properties be enough to help save the flagging company? Not likely. Time will tell but that is a tall order for anyone. Armstrong did say AOL has no plans to sell or spin off any part of its business, Armstrong said. In the coming months, the New York- based company (AOL)’s various offerings, including e-mail and videos, will be more closely tied together and targeted to individual users, he said. Ahem, Tim? Google is already doing this with the rest of the known world so you may want to try something else. So how are you using Aol these days? What Aol sites aside from TechCrunch and HuffPo do you frequent? What do you think the future holds for the company? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Thar’s Money In That Lo...

Mark Armstrong founded his site, Longreads , in 2009. Using Twitter hash tags , the site simply aggregated user’s picks for the best long-form non-fiction on the web, offering a poor man’s content curation engine. Now, two years and thousands of stories later, Armstrong will be joining Nate Weiner’s Read It Later as editorial director, where he will collect and curate content for that app’s users. “Over the past two years with Longreads, I’ve learned so much about the importance of ‘time-shifting’ in helping make long-form content more accessible to more readers on the web. Read It Later now has nearly 4 million registered users, and I think there’s an incredible opportunity for publishers, curators and creators to use the platform in new and valuable ways. That will be my focus,” he said. “We’re in a golden age of storytelling right now on the web, and I think Read It Later is in a perfect position to support that work, across all major platforms. We’re excited about what’s next.” Mark (pictured) was the former director of content at Bundle . He noted that while this is a paid position with the company, he will continue running Longreads, supporting it through reader donations and subscriptions. Read It Later completed a $2.5 million funding round in July, including investments from Foundation Capital, Baseline Ventures, Google Ventures, and Founder Collective. The service has just under 4 million registered users and over 250 apps connect to Read It Later for offline reading. The Android and iOS apps see about 10,000 downloads per day. Mark and I started talking shortly after he launched Longreads. We would routinely have conversations about the space and our views on where it was headed. We never had an agenda or were working together at the time, but just enjoyed the thoughtful discussion. He just got it,” said Weiner. “So this year, after I raised and grew from one to many , Mark and I talked again and realized it was the perfect time to bring him on board. Mark is now helping forge new paths with publishers, writers, and developers who are interested in changing the way people consume articles, videos, and content online and off.” Luckily, even with all his responsibilities, Armstrong will still have a moment to peruse some long-form non-fiction. “Longreads is continuing as it always has: It’s an independent four-person company, and my role with Read It Later will allow Longreads to expand and improve our service to the community. Read It Later has been a huge supporter of Longreads since the very beginning, and what we do is very complementary. Also, in case anyone’s wondering, I’ve always operated Longreads alongside other content strategy work — so, yes, I’ll still have plenty of time to read,” he said.

Funny 2008 Internal Goo...

In 2008 Google’s President of the Americas operation Tim Armstrong (now CEO of our parent company AOL) was pushing hard to get some two dozen advertising processes integrated into a single streamlined system. That project was called Project Spaghetti, and YouTube, which had been acquired in 2006, was a particular problem . The YouTube sales team, led by head of advertising sales Suzie Reider , was apparently less than thrilled with all the pressure Armstrong and Google were putting on them to get advertising products streamlined. They created this video, says the person who gave it to us, to blow off steam internally. The setting is “Mama Suzie’s” Italian restaurant. Customers are ordering all sorts of things, but the only thing the team will make is spaghetti. Near the end a waiter says “Mr. Armstrong isn’t going to be happy.” Suzie replies “You tell Mr. Armstrong, in San Bruno we make spaghetti.” It’s an inside joke kind of thing and this obviously wasn’t created for the public, but the YouTube team was clearly annoyed by the whole situation. The ending is “Don’t worry, they lived happily ever after…making dough.” The video is below: CrunchBase Information YouTube Suzie Reider Tim Armstrong Information provided by CrunchBase

AOL Adds ‘Devil&#...

In Cannes, Huffington and Armstrong talk up mission to "humanize" web.

AOL Adds ‘Devil&#...

In Cannes, Huffington and Armstrong talk up mission to "humanize" web.