AOL Adopts New Blog-Like Format For Its News Web Sites

AOL Gives News Web Sites Look And Feel Of Blogs

AOL is giving its traditional news Web sites the “look and feel of blogs, a shift that is part of its efforts to change from a subscription-based service to a free, advertising-based Web business,” according to Sam Diaz of the WASHINGTON POST.  AOL News and other AOL sites this week were “turned into blog-like sites that display short news stories -- some as short as a single sentence -- accompanied by video clips, photographs or interactive polls intended to engage readers.”  AOL Sports plans to begin a similar format on Monday.  The redesigned sites also include headlines from “traditional news sources and links to popular news bloggers and message boards where readers can comment.”  AOL News & Sports Senior VP Lewis D’Vorkin: “People will consume news in a way they want to consume it.  The more choices we offer, the more they are able to pick and choose between traditional, blogging or user-generated news.”  Yankee Group analyst Jennifer Simpson believes that the approach “could lure younger audiences.”  Simpson: “This is a trend that we’ll see growing more and more as time goes on” (WASHINGTON POST, 6/28).