AOL, the former dial-up internet juggernaut, now online content and display advertising somethingortheother, seems to be building a vast Ark - a rescue vessel for the unemployed journalists who were nearly washed away in the floods of the foretold mediapocalypse.
The internet company - if can we still call it that - is hiring, en masse.
Unbeknownst to most, AOL actually has a few cracking websites and blogs under its year-old MediaGlow (now called AOL Media) destination.
Engadget, Wallet Pop, Slashfood, Pixcetera, Joystiq, TMZ, PoliticsDaily - not a bad line-up.
No? How about the traffic, comScore said AOL Media sites tally in 75m monthly visitors in June, up 5% from last year. In fact, a quarter of Technorati's 'Top 100 blogs' belong to AOL.
According to a report on TechCrunch, AOL currently employs a walloping 1,500 writers, two-thirds of which are full-time staff.
That's twice as many as AOL had last year, and about half as many has the company expects to have next year.
The company is keen on highlighting itself as a destination for entertainment and content as we blogged last week, and truth be told, it's clawed its way into a little niche - and now its got the talent to boot.
Journalists who lost their jobs at titles like, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, USA Today, ESPN, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Consumer Reports and Condé Nast have found work at AOL.
With many more hires to come, it appears AOL, and its new(ish) CEO Jon Miller are focused on the future - hedging its bets on online content.
One might go as far to say the company is showing vague signs of life - splitting from parent company Time Warner, toning down its reliance on its AOL Advertising (nee Platform-A) display business, even looks remotely content with Bebo's position as a number three (or four, or five?) social network.
Hats off to Miller (and keep hiring those journos!) for effectively giving AOL some sort of vision, which is a lot to be said for a company that has changed its name six times in the last 20-odd years - Quantum Computer Services, AOL, America Online Inc., AOL Time Warner Inc., back to AOL (but AOL LLC) and finally, (as of today) AOL Inc.
Identity crisis? Perhaps. But to me, AOL means content, and that means something.
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Dan Leahul
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