Peter Kafka

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Longtime AOL Exec Jon Brod Headed Out

aol jon brodAOL executive Jon Brod, who has had multiple roles in the company and was most recently in charge of its venture arm, is leaving AOL.

The news isn’t a huge shock, as AOL Ventures has been in a bit of limbo for a while, and Brod was moved there last spring after his second run heading Patch, CEO Tim Armstrong’s big and troubled bet on local news.

Sources say Brod has told AOL that he is headed for a startup; AOL declined to comment.

Brod is one of the last AOL executives with longstanding ties to Armstrong. He was one of Patch’s co-founders, and joined AOL after Armstrong, an early Patch investor, bought the company in June 2009.

After that, he held a variety of roles: He first ran AOL Ventures, and at one point was in charge of “integrating” Arianna Huffington and her operation after AOL bought her company. Armstrong moved him back to Patch in 2011.

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work