PalatnikFactor.com

LEAKED: The AOL Way – Guidelines for AOLs Content Program Growth

February 4, 2011 by Pablo Palatnik

You wonder how a company like AOL has maintained a position in the market (obviously losing much of it) but trying to re-invent itself in a similar fashion as Yahoo has being a provider of content and trying to grow its web properties.

AOL needs it needs to do more to survive in todays web as many other properties, one such as Mashable, a now the big content players online in their niche.
What is the AOL WAY? “AOL is using this document to train editors right now. It is an illuminating look into how AOL, a company with hundreds of millions in dollars in annual funding, is trying to turn itself into a 21st century media giant on the fly.”

Some tidbits:

• AOL tells its editors to decide what topics to cover based on four considerations: traffic potential, revenue potential, edit quality and turn-around time.

• AOL asks its editors to decide whether to produce content based on “the profitability consideration.”

• The documents reveal that AOL is, when the story calls for it, willing to boost traffic by 5 to 10% with search ads and other “paid media.”

• AOL site leaders are expected to have eight ideas for packages that could generate at least $1 million in revenue on hand at all times.

• In-house AOL staffers are expected to write five to 10 stories per day.

• AOL knows its sites are too dependent on traffic from AOL.com, and it wants its editors to fix the problem by posting more frequently, with more emphasis on getting pageviews.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-aol-way#ixzz1D0WMnGDk