COO Artie Minson Could Exit AOL, Patch Issues To Blame?

AOL Chief Operating Officer Arthur “Artie” Minson could be departing the company soon, we’re hearing, possibly over how the company has been handling hyperlocal news site Patch. A spokesperson declined to comment for this story, Minson hasn’t returned my call, and our sources say that it’s not a done deal. Minson was promoted to the COO job in June of last year as part of a larger reorganization, moving over from his three-year stint as CFO.?His official bio is basically a big list of positions that he’s held at either AOL or Time Warner (hey, remember AOL-Time Warner?) going back to 2004. In his current position, he’s been responsible for leading the company’s three business units ? the membership group, the brand group (which TechCrunch is a part of), and AOL Networks. One explanation we’ve heard for Minson’s departure is that AOL is trying to boost the numbers for Patch?by lumping in traffic and revenue from the Huffington Post’s local sites. Patch is still unprofitable and?missed its sales target in AOL’s most recent earnings report.?Minson was supposedly unwilling to go along with that plan, which is why he’s leaving. None of this has been officially confirmed. The departure of executives like Brad Garlinghouse from AOL spurred a concerned investor letter back in 2011. The letter also mentioned the departure of Michael Arrington and Heather Harde from TechCrunch. Then exactly one year ago, it?announced a few more departures, including CTO Alex Gounares. Whatever happens with Minson, other exec changes are also happening. AOL is also looking to bring in a new CEO for the content brands division, according to another report out today.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qdpZ5xXqRso/

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