6 posts and columns on Patch Media

AOL Automates Its Story Factory. Does That Kill an Associated Content Deal?

in Media on November 30, 2009 at 4:45 am PT

AOL is cutting its payroll by one-third. Now comes its plan to make the remaining employees more productive: New technology that assigns and even edits stories automatically. That sounds an awful lot like Associated Content, a start-up that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong invested in–and considered buying–earlier this year.
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Sphere Leader Has Exited AOL–But Staying on as "Special" Venture Advisor

in News on November 4, 2009 at 9:30 am PT

Tony Conrad, CEO and co-founder of Sphere–the contextually relevant content engine AOL bought in the spring of 2008 for upward of $25 million–left the Time Warner online unit last month, several sources have told BoomTown in recent weeks. But, in an effort by AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong to hold onto entrepreneurial talent, Conrad has agreed to become “Special Advisor” to its AOL Ventures Unit. Apparently, he is also mulling a new start-up and remains a VC too.
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AOL, Still Shaking Up Staff, Hires New CFO Artie Minson

in Media on August 27, 2009 at 5:47 am PT

Newish AOL CEO Tim Armstrong hasn’t gone on a massive firing binge. But he’s still shaking up the ranks at the Time Warner unit. Today, for instance, he is installing a new chief financial officer: Artie Minson, the deputy CFO at sister company Time Warner Cable. Minson replaces Nisha Kumar, who held the spot for two years.

More Local Heat: MSNBC.com Buys EveryBlock for Several Million Dollars

in News on August 17, 2009 at 9:00 am PT

It looks like the local market is heating up even more, with MSNBC.com announcing the acquisition of Chicago-based EveryBlock. Sources said MSNBC.com–a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal–paid several million dollars for the “hyper-local” information site, which is up and running in 15 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Boston. In June, Time Warner online unit AOL paid about $10 million to buy Patch Media, a platform that does deeply localized coverage of communities on a range of topics.
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Exclusive: Patch Media CEO Brod Now Heading AOL's Venture Unit

in News on July 17, 2009 at 2:39 pm PT

In yet another appointment of an exec close to AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, Patch Media CEO Jon Brod has taken over the new venture arm of the Time Warner online unit. He ran Patch for Armstrong and was president and COO of Polar Capital Group, Armstrong’s private investment company, which is focused on the media, technology and sports sectors. Now Brod will helm AOL Ventures, a new unit of AOL that Armstrong created as part of a larger new strategy to invest in new things, and he will manage a portfolio of some of its more difficult recent acquisitions.
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Back to the Future: AOL Goes Local With Two Acquisitions (Including CEO's Company)

in News on June 11, 2009 at 9:29 am PT

Adding the final leg of its new strategy to reinvigorate AOL, the Time Warner online unit said it was buying two small local start-ups, Patch Media and Going. Each acquisition–which focus on hyperlocal community news (Patch) and events (Going)–is small, about $10 million. Ironically, local has previously been a big arena for AOL, which launched its Digital City unit with great fanfare more than a decade ago. AOL still runs Digital City, as well as its CityGuide listing offering. But, in a move that will surely be scrutinized, Patch is a company whose principal investor has been AOL’s new CEO Tim Armstrong. AOL declined to say how much he had invested in the company, but sources said it was less than $5 million.
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