Despite the popularity of AOL, it has continued to see a decline in its display advertising; however, with the recent announcement of adding MediaGlow to their business unit they aim to improve advertising operations. AOL - the popular Internet Service Provider, owned by Time Warner - state the move to be in the best interests of the company. Whilst they remain profitable, the company continues to experience a decline in advertising revenue, being down 18 percent in 2008. But whilst AOL is widely renowned for allowing customers worldwide to across their "walled garden" online community, they are now attempting to break away from being associated as a portal.
There are currently 75 niche sites that are part of AOL's publishing portfolio, but this is soon to change, with an expected increase of 30 more new sites in 2009. And to help control all matters related to the portfolio, MediaGlow will be looking after their new web publishing unit.
The overall aim is to rebuild AOL under the three main business cores of: advertising, publishing and social media. In fact, Bill Wilson, the AOL publishing executive and future president of MediaGlow describes the move as a "total reinvention of the company". This change in their web strategy is perhaps imperative, as they attempt to quickly improve the current state of the organisation; particularly as Time Warner considered selling AOL last year.
It is also hoped that by creating new sites that are less directly associated to the AOL brand they will prove more attractive to web users and advertisers, whilst at the same time creating more display advertising opportunities. However, the move will perhaps come as a surprise to some individuals, particularly due to the recent downturn in the advertising market.
But considering AOL has excelled in advertising in the past - their content sites growing significantly in popularity in recent years - the move could well prove a positive one. And if you are to look at the statistics, AOL has stated that their content sites receive 70 million monthly visitors; and the new venture is expected to become even more consumer orientated.
Thus far, the current AOL News and AOL Sports sites will be expanded by creating new niche-oriented news and sports sites respectively. This is in addition to building on the success of its Asylum website with new targeted brands.
Therefore, expect AOL to build on what they achieved in 2008 with a new look brand, as they aim to improve advertising revenue amongst what has become a difficult market to operate recently.
