AOL Wants to be an Online Content Factory
Interesting.
I’ve read a couple of articles on this approach.
You use an algorithm to catch trends and supply content to ride the wave.
AOL’s not alone Demand Media is using a similar approach.
The point is to drive inefficiency and editorial costs out of creating news and entertainment, while simultaneously drawing in viewers and thus advertisers. AOL, which has been consistently losing users and revenue, is being spun off from Time Warner back into a standalone company in December. Earlier this month it announced it would lay off about 2,500 employees.
But that leaves AOL with a thriving business of online, niche media sites, including PoliticsDaily, Love.com and popular blogs like Engadget and Joystiq. AOL is trying to become an online content empire, with many sites being standalone brands that readers don’t associate at all with AOL.
With this new system, Armstrong is betting that the future of media, and thus AOL, involves turning editorial functions over to algorithms and writing assignments to freelancers willing to work for pennies a word, according to WSJ.
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