AOL: Getting Back To Basics

AOL is jettisoning a bunch of unsuccessful projects in an effort to trim costs, and perhaps to slap some lipstick on the pig to find a buyer, according to Rafat Ali, Mike Arrington, and Larry Dignan.

On the blogging side, monsters like Engadget are safe, but some lackluster blogs are likely to be discontinued, like Diylife.com. In the meanwhile, internal memos indicate that a bunch of paid-by-the-post bloggers have been directed to not post anything through the end of July.

SnapShot of diylife.com (rank #10,961), downloadsquad.com (#7,168), tuaw.com (#5,672) - Compete, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

It’s a time of real changes in the blogosphere, and the hypothetical benefit of the AOL brand is obviously very limited, if it is a benefit at all.

Still, I find it strange that they turn off the variable expense while keeping all the overhead burning. What they should be doing is getting rid of all the useless management who have been presiding over this mess, not just shutting down the unsuccessful blogs.

I also don’t buy the nichey approach they have taken with AOL blogs. Like Diylife: you can’t just through some general writers at some hot theme, like DIY, and expect magic to happen. They would do better acquiring successful blogs, like they did with Engadget.