AOL CEO Rebukes His Troops
Set aside for a moment the debate over whether Aol is a freelancer sweatshop. The real problem at the internet company is naive editors. Or at least, that's what the guy in charge of Aol says.
The online conglomerate has been hiring brand-name journalists at a time when older news organizations are laying people off. But judging from CEO Tim Armstrong's recent comments, reported by Econsultancy, there's been something of a culture clash. Armstrong was "horrified" by Aol's initial, chaotically crowdsourced coverage of the South by Southwest music festival, and that editors "thought it was ready to go live at all... I shouldn't be the one to catch that issue." Armstrong also said some journalists there are doing too much "opinions and scraping."
Armstrong might be a former Google sales chief rather than, say, an ex New York Timesman, but he obviously has a clear idea of how he wants coverage to look. Now it's up to his veteran newshounds to fall in line.