AOL Confirms Layoffs

Changes in editorial focus
Just days after closing its deal with the Huffington Post, AOL has confirmed that it will lay off hundreds of staffers.

A company spokesperson told Don Reisinger of CNET in a phone interview today that 200 people will be laid off in the U.S. The majority of those employees will come from the editorial side of AOL's operation, while the remaining employees are in other divisions. In addition, AOL will layoff 700 people in India. Approximately 300 of those people, however, will move to other companies and continue working on AOL support functions, like finance and operations.

The layoffs at AOL were prompted by the company's recent acquisition of the Huffington Post for $315 million. Earlier this week, AOL closed the deal and officially integrated the publication with AOL Media and AOL Local to create the Huffington Post Media Group. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington heads up that division as president and editor in chief.

In the acquisition, AOL took on the publication's staffers, leading AOL to make room by laying off some of its employees.

Looking ahead, AOL plans on expanding its editorial staff, the spokesperson said. However, in doing so, it will start moving away from a reliance on freelance journalists and hire more in-house editorial employees.
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