Speaking of Disasters: AOL/Huffington Post Merger Not Super-Terrific

From Caleb Howe, an AOL insider (supposedly) says the deal is terrible.

Dissension in edit. The editorial team is miserable and views Arianna as unpredictable and her leadership unsteady. Several editors are racing to close book deals to be write the “Devil Wear’s Prada” of the digital age. Others are aggressively pitching unflattering profiles to New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, and the LA Times. The lack of maturity and loyalty among editors is stunning – even those close to her are extremely negative behind her back – which is surprising because she has done a great job taking care of her people.

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Fear and paranoia. Large parts of the org recognize the strategy is bad for the business but everyone is afraid to speak out. Arianna is rumored to have created an enemies list across the company and has directed her loyalists to collect dossiers on other managers across the company and report back on conversations. Her list includes several key business, sales, technology, and marketing executives she wants to eliminate and replace with her people. Anyone who disagrees, even if backed by data and clear rationale’s – goes on the enemies list. Facts don’t matter.

Speaking as an Internet Person (sadly), I would not in a thousand years put a bunch of Internet People in control of a company. You need someone on top of things running herd, and I don't think on-top-of-things type people accumulate in great numbers on internet content sites.

Some. But you're going to get a lot of flighty, do-I-have-to-bother-with-work-work-? types.

posted by Ace at 01:54 PM

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