Silicon Alley Insider has obtained what is allegedly a leaked memo from AOL called “The AOL Way” with guidelines on how their editorial content should be produced.
As a content editor myself, I can only imagine the large sucking sound that must have filled the room as writers’ livelihoods departed their souls after reading the memo. Turning what should be a labor of passion and interest into a soulless, profit-fueled enterprise doesn’t exactly do wonders for the morale of a writer.
SAI has highlighted these points:
- AOL tells its editors to decide what topics to cover based on four considerations: traffic potential, revenue potential, edit quality and turn-around time.
- AOL asks its editors to decide whether to produce content based on “the profitability consideration.”
- The documents reveal that AOL is, when the story calls for it, willing to boost traffic by 5 to 10% with search ads and other “paid media.”
- AOL site leaders are expected to have eight ideas for packages that could generate at least $1 million in revenue on hand at all times.
- In-house AOL staffers are expected to write five to 10 stories per day.
- AOL knows its sites are too dependent on traffic from AOL.com, and it wants its editors to fix the problem by posting more frequently, with more emphasis on getting pageviews.
(This headline’s quote is from @KenFisher, founder of Ars Technica):
OH: “This AOL Way Memo is like a sadness factory for websites.” #fb
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-aol-way
