New York – In a major shake-up to the company’s Internet
content business, AOL (NYSE: AOL) has announced a trio of media partnerships that will
outsource much of the writing previously done in-house.
The company has signed
deals with The Sporting News to provide sports content, Everyday Health for
health content and Move Inc. for real estate listings. Financial terms of the
deals were not disclosed.
"We will be partnering with companies in areas
that add strength to the consumer experience and drive profitability for
AOL," said CEO Tim Armstrong. "The three deals we are announcing
today universally improve AOL and allow us to build for the future."
According to AdWeek, the most profound change may be in the area of sports,
where beginning March 1 visitors to AOL’s home page who click on the
"Sports" tab will by redirected to the website of The Sporting News.
It was just two years ago that AOL rebranded its sports content as
FanHouse.com, hiring a stable of prominent journalists.
The company said it
plans to retain some of those writers, as well as the FanHouse brand, though
details remain unclear.
The news comes on the heels of a year in which AOL
signed deals with more than 20 content partners and digital studios in a bid to
bolster its programming.
Related Links:
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http://tinyurl.com/4872m6f
(AdWeek)
