As AOL Prepares To Downsize Patch, CEO Fires Employee During Meeting 248
An anonymous reader writes "AOL is closing or plans to sell nearly half of the 900 'hyperlocal' news websites operated by its money-losing Patch Media subsidiary (TechCrunch is also owned by AOL). Hundreds of staff layoffs are believed to be imminent. AOL acquired Patch in 2009, soon after ex-Googler Tim Armstrong took over as CEO; Armstrong was also a co-founder of Patch. During a tough conference call last Thursday Armstrong told Patch editors: 'Something at Patch has been missing for some time and that's leadership – leadership with a capital L'. Armstrong then demonstrated his grasp of Donald Trump's management style by firing an employee during the meeting for taking a picture. At 1:18 of the NY Post's sound clip from Jim Romensko: 'Leaking information Patch isn't going to bother me. I'm not changing direction'. At 2:00: 'Abel [Creative Director Lenz], put that camera down. Abel, you're fired. Out.' Armstrong later explained that 'The reason I fired Abel is I don't want anyone taking pictures of this meeting' and that, much like a sports team, AOL couldn't afford to have people 'giving the game plan away'."
Patch is already dead (Score:5, Informative)
They killed it months ago. Now they are just dragging the corpse through the streets instead of giving it a proper burial.
Last year there was an actual reporter posting actual news relevant to and about our town. Readers posted comments - sometimes hundreds on a single article. There were lively discussions about school issues, traffic safety and other local issues with generally one to three new articles every day.
Then they announced "exciting upgrades." The look and feel of the site went from OK to awful. Our local reporter has been "reassigned to a regional area." The local news is an irregularly updated mish-mash of cut 'n' paste police blotter info posted well after it has already been available on Nixle, reposts from other news sources (and not very local), and "reporting" consisting of things like a brief listing of the city-council agenda followed by an "article" saying "Were you at the meeting? What are your comments?" And still they sometimes can't get any news posted for days. Really?
They have added lots of "sponsored" Patch localities advertising Planes, Smurfs and the like.
The "local" reporters are now, if you look at their profiles, all over the country and making errors in articles that just make them look like idiots to anyone actually living here. Reviews and articles about places that closed a year or two ago do not make for credibility.
Much of the supposedly local news is just repackaged national stats. "How is unemployment in YourLocalTown compared to the rest of the country?" and the like. Other stuff is somewhat local looking blog stuff that turns out to be identical on all the sites.
It's sad. The site used to be fun and interesting. Too bad they couldn't make it a successful business.
Leadership, and cultivating leadership (Score:4, Informative)
Even the most primitive form of leadership starts with setting an example. An example of self-control makes the leadership more functional.
A more advanced form is setting clear expectations and communicating them, for example by having a "no photos" rule. One person I read about enjoyed Marine boot camp because unlike his family, the rules were the same from one day to the next.
Then comes raising new leaders, which is done by mentoring and assigning increasing responsibility. Intimidation creates followers, not leaders.
If this incident is typical then as a leader I consider him a total loss with no insurance.
Re:More accurately: (Score:5, Informative)
Dude left Google to hatch his own scheme.
Dude stayed on after AOL bought his gimmick company.
Dude lashed out because he's still stuck holding the bag.
Not that the guy with the camera was being in any way professional, but if this guy wants to make sports analogies, his scull has split down the keel and he just tossed one of the rowers overboard.
Actually, he has a history of taking pictures of internal conference calls and posting them on the company Intranet. This wasn't an aberration - it was literally his thing. That he was fired for it puts the CEO in a bad light, not the camera operator.
Re:What a dick (Score:4, Informative)
The one that's used to make record of all meetings for the internal news site?
A photo on a "strategical meeting" where no graphs or slides are being shown is not a strategic threat. However, I sound recording device is always a threat, and I'm pretty sure that at least one would be active at that time - you can bet your arse I would do it if a colleague of mine were fired that way for a probable grievance.
In some countries, being firing someone this way is the best way to get a good indemnification for moral damages.
Re:What a dick (Score:4, Informative)
It will be very exciting to watch this company disappear.
Re: Two idiots in a corp meeting (Score:5, Informative)
From http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-audio-listen-to-aol-ceo-tim-armstrong-fire-a-patch-employee-snapping-a-photo-2013-8 [businessinsider.com] :
We hear that Lenz, based in New York, would always take pictures of people talking on company-wide conference calls so that he could post them on Patch's internal news site.
Re:What a dick (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, this is the sort of love/hate behavior that Hollywood celebrities have with cameras. They love to flaunt their stuff in front of cameras . . . when invited to do so. But if you catch them not wearing their best makeup . . . they get violent. See tmz.com for examples . . . like Kayne West assaulting a cameraman in an airport.
At any rate, I wouldn't want to work for a company that had a spoiled Hollywood baby as a CEO.
Hey, if you are a big celebrity, and love the fame, deal with it.
Patch was good and bad (Score:4, Informative)
The good in Patch was that it put a few extra bucks in the pockets of somebody I know. It really was local, and seemed to be building genuine community. The bad was their e-mail alerts that were not timely or meaningful. I eventually turned them off. Alas, the web site itself just wasn't interesting enough to pull me in on a daily basis. I'm not sure why. The free dead-tree local papers continue to be my source for "the skinny" on stuff that's too local for the biggies (e.g., the bowling alley and the strip club being demolished to make way for condos, that kind of story).
Re:More accurately: (Score:4, Informative)
Only in the USA...
My country requires firings to be done in writing, with a signature, specifically to prevent stunts like this. As a matter of fact, a lot of countries have similar laws. In most of the civilized world, this termination would be legally null and void. In some countries, doing it this way would also bar you from following up with a legally correct termination.