Aol Shuts Down 30 Verticals, Absorbs Some Coverage Into HuffPost Blogs

by Alex Alvarez | 3:09 pm, March 22nd, 2011

» 12 comments

Well, this was bound to happen: On the heels of its $315 million Huffington Post deal, Aol has announced that it will shut down 30 of its blogs, electing to absorb some of these into other brands, including a few existing HuffPost verticals.

The blogs impacted by the change include Politics Daily, which will become part of HuffPost Politics (thus confirming Matt Lewis‘ fear), and Urlesque, which now becomes part of HuffPost Comedy. Some blogs, like PopEater, will exist as their own entities within the Huffington Post.

Several Aol blogs were left without a staff following its recent wave of layoffs, including, as Business Insider helpfully listed, Holidash, Pawnation, Health, Healthy Living, That’s Fit, KOL, Parentdish, Travel, Kitchen Daily, Aisledash, Royal Wedding, Stylelist and Luxist. Other Aol blogs, like Asylum and Lemon Drop, were previously shut down.

h/t Forbes‘ Mixed Media

AOL, Huffington Post, Politics Daily

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dean-Johnston/1817435185 Dean Johnston

Remember when AOL was going to “take over the world?” It’s sort of like the way people now talk about Facebook.
Atticus Draco

Dean Johnston said:
Remember when AOL was going to “take over the world?” It’s sort of like the way people now talk about Facebook.

I still remember the ‘Prodigy’ attempted takeover
i was a member of that revolution!
WCinWI

Hi AOL, it was nice to know ya.

NOT!
Jean-Luc

Dean Johnston said:
Remember when AOL was going to “take over the world?” It’s sort of like the way people now talk about Facebook.

I remember using their free CDs as frisbees.
OxyCon

AOL has the reverse Midas touch…right Netscape and Real Video? So glad they bought Huff N’ Puff.
OxyCon

Jean-Luc said:
I remember using their free CDs as frisbees.

I remember using their floppies at work, hahaha! Top that!
Atticus Draco

OxyCon said:
AOL has the reverse Midas touch…right Netscape and Real Video? So glad they bought Huff N’ Puff.

LMAO,,, looking on the bright side,,, i love that,,
and you’re absolutely right!
Atticus Draco

OxyCon said:
I remember using their floppies at work, hahaha! Top that!

lol,, that’s way back,,, that’s in the electronic bulletin board era!
herkybird

Jean-Luc said:
I remember using their free CDs as frisbees.

LOL! I am a computer geek that does on site service. You would not believe the number of people who have internet service through their cbale provider but were still (at that time) were paying for AOL.
llog1634

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http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

Out of the 30 titles being shuttered, all but seven (IOW: 23) are listed among those soliciting paid contributions via Seed and a quick scan through their “New Seeds” blog shows that some titles were regular purchasers of freelance work.

Personally, I’ve never done anything for Seed and I realize that some of the AOL public statements have been that they’re planning to boost their paid stable, but other statements applaud the HuffPo business model which could imply that some of the paid staffers and Seed writers could be replaced with volunteer labor.
—

Back on the 14th, I tweeted that Politics Daily had a big banner across the top rebranding it as HuffPost Politics. As an exercise, I tried to find an individual PD article via a HuffPo search, but at least at that time, the two catalogs had not been merged and one wonders how far into the future, they’ll be maintaining separate archives.
—

OxyCon said:
I remember using their floppies at work, hahaha! Top that!

I still have a handful of their 3.5″ disks in the basement, but I’m not sure about the 5.25″.
(Though, I do have a big box of 5.25″, I just can’t remember if any are AOL)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Heidi-Hanson/1041590058 Heidi Hanson

By doing this AOL has ruined BOTH sites. Huffpo has become a traitor to its audience and Aol never was worth reading.