Posted on 08/10/2013 5:18:33 AM PDT by dynachrome
We reported yesterday that AOL’s hyper-local news service would lose hundreds of employees today, and now we have confirmation from a well-placed Patcher privy to the call that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong did indeed confirm to employees that hundreds would be laid off, with notifications of who will be let go coming throughout the coming week. (Disclosure: AOL owns TechCrunch).
In a call Armstrong held with the Patch team today, he explained that “AOL is going to be running the show” at the restructured Patch along with new CEO Bud Rosenthal. Rosenthal replaces outgoing CEO Steve Kalin, who was reported to be getting the boot earlier this week.
400 Patch sites will be closed or partnered with outside sites over the coming week as part of the changes being made at Patch to try and turn things around, Armstrong explained on the call, but also reassured the Patch staff that the company is behind the initiative and told them not to “worry about what [they] read in the press,” calling it “bullshit.” Nonetheless, he encouraged any Patch non-believers still remaining at the company to get out now, emphasizing that there’s no room for equivocation in turning the effort around.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
Gee,what a shame. Hardcore liberal AOL spinoff does poorly.
Whoops, sorry about bad language in excerpt.
my 250 still in the cellophane AOL floppies and CD’s get more valuable by the day
‘You’ve got mail! Fruit salad is still in business?
AOL: Goodbye!
I like to think I am pretty savvy but I had never heard of Patch. You think that may have been the problem?
Anyway prayers for those laid off.
Never heard of Patch. I think I’ve identified their first problem.
AoL is a last century company that hasn’t been able to keep up. That’s the second.
And finally, it sounds like they may have poor leadership at the top.
Actually Patch was a good idea, very local online news delivered daily. It was giving the local weekly rags serious competition. The problem was that they were always way too bland, never got into the weeds to report the local political shenanigans and didn’t have the testes to shake things up. Instead Patch ended up being no better than AOL.
Perhaps someone can come along and Patch things up?
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