Less than two weeks after announcing hundreds of layoffs, AOL told its staff on Tuesday that it would fold 30 of its branded content sites into other properties.
The move was expected after AOL finalized its $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post and cut about 900 employees from its workforce.
Among the 30 brands being “integrated” by Arianna Huffington: Politics Daily (which will be folded into HuffPost Politics), Walletpop (now part of Daily Finance), Urlesque (into HuffPost Comedy), Shelterpop and Luxist (into Stylelist) and TV Squad (folded into AOL TV).
Some of AOL’s stronger mini-brands, like PopEater, will remain, but will become verticals within the Huffington Post’s sprawling, newspaper-like portfolio.
As All Things D reported, a few HuffPo verticals, like its travel site, will be closed in “favor of AOL’s stronger offering.”
Meanwhile, the Huffington Post continued its own post-sale hiring spree, announcing six new staffers on Tuesday: Maura Egan (from the New York Times) has been named deputy entertainment, culture and lifestyle editor; Radley Balko (from Reason magazine) has been tapped as HuffPo’s criminal justice reporter; Rebecca Carroll as culture editor of Black Voices; Amanda Millner-Fairbanks (from Good magazine) as education reporter; and Jaweed Kaleem (The Miami Herald) as religion reporter.
Christopher Spurlock, a student, has been named “infographic design editor. (You can read the cool backstory on Spurlock’s hiring here.)
All told, Tuesday’s announcement brings the number of new hires to 23 since the HuffPo-AOL deal was finalized.
