Back from near-death, AOL feels vindicated that it bet on a content strategy when everyone else was turning to platforms and technology. CEO Tim Armstrong shared some thoughts on content, hyper-local site Patch and whether AOL might buy Time’s magazines. Read more at paidContent »
Most of the startups and networks focused on hyperlocal or community news and information try to be as open as possible, but Nextdoor is taking the exact opposite approach and making the barrier to entry for users as high as it can. Read more »
Looking for the turnaround story of 2013? Stop looking at Yahoo — it’s AOL that’s the real deal. The company has quietly put in place a powerful strategy based on media, technology and advertising. And investors like what they see. Read more at paidContent »
In a move to increase community and social networking and decrease reliance on paid editors and writers, Aol’s struggling hyperlocal site Patch is rolling out a redesign today in five Long Island towns. The redesign will spread to 50 more communities this year. Read more at paidContent »
Facebook Stories, a new original content site that will focus on a different theme each month, is intended to highlight Facebook users’ stories. But with a former Time magazine reporter overseeing an editorial team, does the company have something bigger in mind for Facebook Stories? Read more at paidContent »
Everyone likes the idea of a thriving website sustained by a community of local readers. But too often “local” has been the stuff of journalistic ideals rather than real-world business plans. Real estate blog, Curbed, appears to be bucking this trend. How? Read more at paidContent »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
Tim Armstrong continues to believe local news network Patch is not only viable, it is vital to Aol’s future. He promises a new data-driven product in development now will wow Patch watchers and users in the fall. Read more at paidContent »
The Guardian is trialling a new community publishing platform that’s based on where you are — a sort of Wordpress meets Craigslist meets Everyblock. But can it make hyperlocal work? The company’s director of digital strategy tells us what it means. Read more »
AOL has said it remains committed to rolling out its Patch.com network of a thousand hyperlocal news outlets across the U.S., but reports about cost-cutting efforts raise the question of how long the troubled former web giant can maintain that commitment to its money-losing hyperlocal project. Read more »
Carol Bartz may be gone, but there’s another CEO who has also spent two years trying — and failing — to turn around a former web giant: namely, AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong. How much longer does he have before he gets the chop as well? Read more »
Some media outlets are hoping that launching iPad subscriptions and paywalls will supplement the meager revenue they get from traditional online banner advertising, but AOL’s Patch and Hearst Magazines’ digital media are experimenting with some more innovative ways of monetizing their content as well. Read more »
AOL has made two huge bets — one the $315-million purchase of The Huffington Post and the other the expansion of its Patch.com hyperlocal news effort. Which is more likely to save AOL? With editorial turmoil and Patch’s high costs, the right answer may be neither. Read more »
AOL continues to pour money into its Patch.com “hyperlocal” news venture, and is also rolling out a Huffington Post-style aggregation effort called Local Voices aimed at pulling in local bloggers. But can any of this help AOL dig itself out of the financial hole it’s in? Read more »
AOL’s Patch network of hyperlocal blogs, which has suggested that a number of initiatives are coming to increase community engagement with i… Read more at paidContent »
AOL has agreed to acquire Outside.in, a hyper-local news aggregator, for substantially less than investors put into the company. Like many other experiments in hyper-local news, it failed to connect with the communities it was supposed to be serving, and that is the kiss of death. Read more »
AOL’s recent acquisition of the Huffington Post for $315 million has centered a lot of attention on its content strategy — big part of which is automating and standardizing content that attracts search-related advertising. While there are some clear benefits to this “content farm” approach to content, there are also some significant disadvantages. Here we look at some of the leaders in this sector and their histories, as well as the key risks and benefits of the content farm strategy. Companies mentioned in this report include AOL, The Huffington Post, MySpace, Demand Media, Google and Associated Content. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As the online media game gets increasingly saturated, a new land rush is building in the hyper-local market, according to Topix CEO Chris Tolles, who says AOL’s ambitious rollout of its Patch.com network of local news sites is just the beginning of the land grab. Read more »
As predicted, an update to Apple’s Snow Leopard and Leopard operating systems, which fixes a record number of vulnerabilities, is now available. The sizable patch, which weighs in at over 700MB, tends to a number of known security problems within the latest client and server versions of OS X, and is the largest update Apple has ever put out. Read more »
AOL announced two locally focused platform acquisitions today: Patch, which is designed to bring news and other information to local communities, and Going, which helps people find stuff to do in their areas. In the press release announcing the acquisitions, new AOL CEO (and former Google […] Read more »
