WebProNews » Ted Leonsis http://www.webpronews.com Breaking News in Tech, Search, Social, & Business Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:32:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Leonsis To Cap Active AOL Management http://www.webpronews.com/leonsis-to-cap-active-aol-management-2006-09 http://www.webpronews.com/leonsis-to-cap-active-aol-management-2006-09#comments Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:48:06 +0000 WebProNews Staff http://www.webpronews.com/?p=31514 Ted Leonsis, the vice-chairman of AOL, will relinquish active management in favor of a “visionary” role in the company on New Year’s Day, 2007.

An era ends at AOL as longtime executive Ted Leonsis role as vice-chairman morphs into a strategic advisory role for current chairman and CEO, Jonathan Miller, AOL announced today.

Miller waxed effusively about Leonsis in recounting his accomplishments at AOL:

“Ted Leonsis helped build AOL, not once, but twice,” said Jon Miller. “The first time was in the 1990s, when Ted and AOL literally helped get America online. A second time began in 2002, with Ted as the driving force behind AOL’s dramatic shift from a dial-up ISP to a Web services business.

“In the 2nd Quarter of 2006, AOL’s advertising revenue grew by 40% — and it is this business for which Ted’s been most responsible,” said Miller.

“I love AOL, and I am so proud of what we’ve done. I think I’m most proud of what we’ve accomplished in the past two years, growing our Audience business and driving it to become the future of AOL,” Leonsis said.

“AOL is in great hands, and it is absolutely on the right path. I look forward to working with Jon Miller and all of my friends and colleagues at AOL, but in a new and different way.”


That ad revenue represents the path first discussed in July by Miller, when Wall Street began to buzz with rumors that AOL would shift its subscription-based content to an audience-driven, ad-supported model.

Since that time, AOL has made its services available for free to broadband users. The latest step in bringing more users to AOL was unveiled when they debuted the My eAddress service. This provides a free .com or .net domain registration and up to 100 email addresses for those who sign up for it.

—

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/leonsis-to-cap-active-aol-management-2006-09/feed 0 VON: Ted Leonsis Is Really Happy http://www.webpronews.com/von-ted-leonsis-is-really-happy-2006-09 http://www.webpronews.com/von-ted-leonsis-is-really-happy-2006-09#comments Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:09:55 +0000 WebProNews Staff http://www.webpronews.com/?p=31419 AOL’s vice-chairman spoke at the Fall 2006 VON conference about the Internet and the future of video online. He thinks video is just beginning a strong move into being a prominent feature of online life.

WebProNews publisher Rich Ord contributed his account of the proceedings from Boston, where VON will run through September 14th. Here are some quotes and impressions from the talk given by Ted Leonsis.

“Today is the worst day the Internet will have,” said Leonsis. He was not forecasting something bad, but something good instead – the rapid improvement of the online experience, and video as a part of that.

Search drives the functionality of the web now. In the beginning it was about utility; the web came about because of a need to share information more easily. With so much information available online, people need search to get to what they want.

He noted how utility has changed into something different as people changed their expectations of the Internet. Instead of just a desire to be “needed” online, now people want to be needed and loved. It motivates them to create content.

People control the steering wheel when it comes to navigating the Internet. They aren’t going to give up that control. Search provides the navigation, and this makes the algorithms especially important, because now companies market to that.

Timeliness goes hand in hand with relevance. Leonsis noted how the Google algorithm does a great job of showing how people point to a site based on that timeliness.

He also criticized Google and Yahoo for their minimalist approach to search page design in an increasingly broadband world, calling their look and feel a design for the dialup world ten years ago.

Leonsis contrasted that with AOL Search. “We now have search designed for a broadband world with pictures and video and sound enhancing search results right on the same page.”

Online video enables the ascension of the mega next-generation media and entertainment business. He offered AOL’s TMZ.com celebrity site as an example.

“This site has become how Hollywood starts its day because we break stories,” Leonsis said, citing the Mel Gibson DUI incident as an example.

After discussing some AOL-specific initiatives, including a deal with chipmaker Intel on displaying AOL Video on televisions, he closed with what he called the most important part of the presentation: encouragement to be more generous, respectful, and sharing in all of one’s endeavors.

“We are really in the happiness business and that is a great business to be in,” he said.

—

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/von-ted-leonsis-is-really-happy-2006-09/feed 0