Tim Armstrong is once again tweaking AOL’s organizational structure, hoping to provide the inconstant portal with some momentum and steady direction. To help, the AOL CEO has elevated the company’s CFO Artie Minson to chief operating officer.
In that position, Minson will oversee three newly formed AOL divisions: AOL Membership Group, Content Brands Group and the Advertising.com Group.
Minson has been with AOL in various roles since 2009. This is his second stint with the company. Previously, Minson logged time at Time Warner Cable as evp, deputy chief financial officer. During his last go-round, Minson served as svp of corporate finance and development at AOL in the mid-2000s.
The reorganization is Armstrong’s latest attempt to find the right formula to complete AOL’s extended turnaround. He's spent much of his tenure consolidating AOL's ambitions and radically reshaping the company following the acquisition of The Huffington Post in 2011.
The new three-division strategy appears designed to separate AOL’s distinct revenue sources, with AOL Membership focusing on the firm’s dying dial-up business; Advertising.com, AOL’s tech-driven unit, selling remnant inventory; and the Content Brands Group housing marquee properties like TechCrunch and Huffington Post. One goal seems to be to create some distance between AOL’s core properties, which cater to brand advertisers, and the rest of the company.
It will be interesting to see what Minson’s hire means for the rest of AOL’s executive leadership. In May, Armstrong shuffled his sales team, moving onetime chief revenue officer Ned Brody into the job of CEO of Ad.com. Some have speculated that Brody may be looking to leave the company down the road, speculation that may intensify with Minson’s hiring.