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AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis announced today that on January 1, he'll "retire from active management" while keeping his job title.

While many in the company may be sick of the man who really ran AOL (what, you thought it was the CEOs? Read any history of the 90s dot-coms and you'll see Ted was always the company's biggest swinging dick), he may be honest when he blogs that he's really really doing it to spend more time with his family. "In today's world of press spin," sez Ted, "if you mention stepping back from work load to focus on family, people think you got fired from your job."

So who's next? Well, a few weeks ago, I'd have said Jason Calacanis. But the AOL exec, who joined when the company bought his Weblogs Inc. blog network, is stuck at his current job overseeing Netscape.com. Alexa traffic stats suggest Calacanis's relaunch of the site this June didn't slow a two-year traffic plummet. Now an outside source says he could get booted from the company next year. So much for his plan to revolutionize AOL. Now who will take Ted's job?

Ted Leonsis to Retire from Active Management of AOL In 2007 [AOL press release]