Tim Armstrong - FishbowlLA

Patch’s Hyper-Urgent Deadline: Q4, 2013

Richard Horgan — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:00:15 +0000

Hindsight is admittedly 20/20. But looking back on the evolution of AOL’s Patch, it’s hard not to wonder where the network might be today if the original focus had been on rolling out around 80 nationwide hubs rather than shooting for a ridiculous, illogical 2010 year-end target of 800+.

The fallout from that misguided tactic remains clear and present across the hyper-local news network to this day. It also framed a May 8 earnings conference call with AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong. As reported by streetfightmag.com deputy editor Steven Jacobs, Patch is going to take “all means possible” and consider “other revenue products” to make the operation profitable by the fourth quarter of 2013.

As is now standard for any such Patch-related news article, the reader comments include a smattering from former company employees that paint a hyper-dreadful picture. Here in SoCal, the rollout of the new Patch beta site design is just about to start. This morning for example, San Juan Capistrano Patch let readers know the new look will be turned on there next week.

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5 Things You Need to Know This Week: Glenn Beck, Bilbo Baggins, and Amazon’s Tablet

Andrew Gauthier — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:51:43 +0000

In this week’s episode of 5 Things You Need to Know This Week, we talk about fantasy football, Fashion Week, Tim “Stretch” Armstrong, and Glenn Beck‘s new children’s show.

For more videos, check out Mediabistro.tv, and be sure to follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

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AOL Layoffs: Fun With Tim Armstrong Corporate-Speak

Matthew Fleischer — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:22:39 +0000

Just days after completing its acquisition of Huffington Post (and seeing its stock dip in the immediate aftermath) AOL has announced it’s layoff time. Gotta keep the shareholders happy! All in all, AOL is shedding 900 jobs worldwide, with 200 of those jobs coming from editorial.

Hooray redundancy! Don’t you just love media mergers? Moguls get richer and writers get laid off.

Business Insider got a hold of AOL CEO Tim Armstrong‘s memo to staff. It’s quite a treat. Filled with gloriously evil corporate speak. We personally like this graph, which comes just after Armstrong lets his staff know that changes in “organizational structure” will be costing people their jobs.

The structural changes at AOL are possible because of the progress we have made as a team in the last 12 months. The majority of our sites have materially improved their consumer experiences, our advertising business continues to get healthier and more innovative, our video position is strengthening everyday, our local footprint is quickly expanding, we are attracting some of the most talented people in the world to work at AOL, and our technology infrastructure is simpler and more robust. AOL is a global brand and a global opportunity and we are doing the hard work that will once again make the company an industry leader.

That’s right! These layoffs are possible because of all your hard work. We couldn’t have done it without you!

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AOL’s Stock Sinks After Closing Huffpo Deal

Tina Dupuy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:24:07 +0000

LAT’s Nathan Olivarez-Giles writes:

AOL’s purchase of the Huffington Post closed Monday, and the same day, AOL’s stock sank to its lowest price ever.

As noted by Business Insider’s Chart of the Day, shares of AOL fell about 4%, or 79 cents, to $19.26 — its lowest closing price so far. That was down about one-third from the one-year high it reached in April, Business Insider noted.

This could be an indicator that the purchase of Huffpo by AOL was overpriced or the investors are not thrilled with Chief Executive Tim Armstrong. And it could also be a combination. Although, it is only the first day…and an all time low.

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BREAKING: AOL Acquires The Huffington Post

Richard Horgan — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:00:58 +0000

In what has to go down as one of the best kept secrets in recent media deal making history, AOL’s Tim Armstrong and The Huffington Post‘s Arianna Huffington today completed an arrangement that will see his old guard Internet outfit acquire her new guard Internet venture for a cool $315 million. Huffington will become president and editor-in-chief of newly formed The Huffington Post Media Group, which will combine all of The Huffington Post and AOL’s diverse content (Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, PopEater, etc.)

Via a 12:01 a.m. ET February 7th post on her site, Huffington confirms that it all went down in Dallas in the shadow of the epic contest between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers. The stunning acquisition deal culminates fast-track negotiations that were sparked last November and picked up again in earnest at the turn of the new year:

There were many more meetings, back-and-forth emails, and phone calls about what our merger would mean for the two companies. Things moved very quickly. A term sheet was produced, due diligence began, and on Super Bowl Sunday the deal was signed. In fact, it was actually was signed at the Super Bowl, where Tim was hosting a group of wounded vets from the Screamin’ Eagles. It was my first Super Bowl – an incredibly exciting backdrop that mirrored my excitement about the merger and the future ahead.

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USC Prof Follows Up ‘Evil’ Patch Question

Richard Horgan — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:00:47 +0000

It has become known as the Patch question heard around the world, or at least around the insular world of print and online journalists. At a recent conference in Washington, D.C., USC Annenberg School of Journalism Assistant Professor Robert Hernandez (pictured) stood up and asked company CEO Tim Armstrong, “Is Patch evil?”

On Friday afternoon, Hernandez got the chance to do an online follow-up chat of sorts with Patch Editor-in-Chief Brian Farnham, who insisted that he LOVED the “evil” question. One of the other interesting nubs of the Typewith.Me conversation came when Hernandez asked Farnham to compare current Patch efforts with a previous hyper-local news initiative he was involved with in the 1990′s, Microsoft’s Sidewalk.com.

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