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AOL Planning Move to Ad-Supported Model
garzpacho writes "In recognition of the fact that its subscriber-based revenues continue to plummet, AOL is planning to shift to an ad-supported business model. AOL's subscriber base, which peaked at 30 million users, now has less than 19 million subscribers and is still dropping — over 800,000 subscribers dropped the service in this year's first quarter alone. In addition to seeing fewer AOL CDs, a shift to ad revenue also means some serious cuts in staff size, especially in the customer service and retention departments. From the article: 'Time Warner plans to announce a series of changes at AOL that analysts say will mark the end of the company's paid-subscriber model. The company will begin relying on advertising sales rather than monthly fees paid by customers, according to the Wall Street Journal. 'I don't know whether advertising will work, but my thinking is (the changes) are basically an acceptance of what is happening,' says Joseph Bonner, a media and telecommunications analyst at Argus Research. 'This is a reflection of reality, that they have to find some other source of revenue.''"
AOL blocked 0 spam e-mails today!
Badass Resumes
Looks like all those AOL customers have gone AWOL!
*ducks*
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Due to plummeting sales Mcdonalds announced plans to add dirt to their menu.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Who wouldn't want to advertise to the gullible?
"Install our free screensaver and it will speed up your Internet tubes 200%!!!"
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
Does this mean that they won't let you cancel AOL unless you buy from an advertiser?
It will not be bad at all because nobody will go the AOL properties to see the ads.
But AOL has a killer demographic for advertisers: Clueless noobs with more money than brains. This is an advertisers wet dream.
In my book, AOL became obsolete the day they started sending their spam on useless CDs instead of floppy disks. They switched from being my free supply of removable media to becoming a totally useless annoyance. You'd think that they'd at least have the courtesy of sending their junk on CD-R/Ws, but no, all they sent was shiny coasters.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.