NY Times: New Software (and Bosses) at AOL. But many of the rest are America Online veterans, itching to return the service to its old glory, one they saw as focused on the user. And so the center of the new release, called version 8.0, will have a renewed focus on chat rooms and the other forms of interaction and self-expression that AOL calls its community. [Tomalak's Realm]
Last spring, a new group of executives took over running the America Online service. The head, James de Castro, a former radio executive, is new to the company and was named by AOL Time Warner's recently departed chief operating officer, Robert W. Pittman. But many of the rest are America Online veterans, itching to return the service to its old glory, one they saw as focused on the user. And so the center of the new release, called version 8.0, will have a renewed focus on chat rooms and the other forms of interaction and self-expression that AOL calls its community.
"If you are in this for the stock price, you are probably out of this by now," said James P. Bankoff, an executive vice president in charge of programming on the AOL service. "The people who are here now are passionate about what they do, and 8.0 has been a great goal to focus on amid everything."
A simmering wave of dissatisfaction among AOL employees began to boil last year.
"There was a movement in the halls that we had to take our company back," said Ted Leonsis, who was president of AOL in the mid-1990's and is now its vice chairman. "The senior people were spending too much time in New York talking about cross-promotion to Wall Street. We knew that members don't pay for synergy. They want to get online and find a community."
