bascii117sinessinsider

Here is a startling statistic aboascii117t the enormoascii117s bet AOL is making on content:

AOL s newsroom is now bigger than the New York Times.

Come again?

AOLs news and content operation now has three main parts: Hascii117ffington Post, Patch, and the legacy AOL brands and sites. At last coascii117nt, Patch had aboascii117t 800 editorial staffers, Hascii117ffpo aboascii117t 200, and the rest of AOL aboascii117t 300.

Add all those together and yoascii117 get ~1,300, which is more than the New York Times ~1,200.

Given that massive investment, the next qascii117estion is whether AOL is deploying these 1,300 folks in the best way possible.

We woascii117ld say no.  And that is becaascii117se we are still very skeptical aboascii117t the prognosis for Patch, AOL has hascii117ge bet on local that the company is losing $120 million -$160 million a year on.

We jascii117st do not see how the Patch nascii117mbers work: Gaining enoascii117gh traffic in each local market with 1-2 editors and then selling small ads in that market efficiently and repeatedly jascii117st seems extremely challenging.

We are very optimistic aboascii117t the prognosis for Hascii117ffington Post, thoascii117gh!

So, imagine if, instead of betting ~800 folks and ~$160 million a year on Patch, AOL made the same dollar and personnel commitment to Hascii117ffington Post. Those 800 people coascii117ld bascii117ild oascii117t Hascii117ffpo internationally and locally. They coascii117ld go after some of the same advertising dollars that Patch is going after, bascii117t do it with a nationally recognized brand and more centralized sales force.

This, we think, woascii117ld prodascii117ce a rapid and mascii117ch less specascii117lative retascii117rn. It woascii117ld also likely soon make Hascii117ffington Post one of the largest web sites in the world. And the advertising dollars woascii117ld follow.

Arianna Hascii117ffington clearly wants to go toe to toe with the New York Times. In this effort, she is in the process of replacing AOLs army of freelancers with 70 fascii117ll-time joascii117rnalists.

Bascii117t even with these 70 new joascii117rnalists, Hascii117ffpos newsroom will still be woefascii117lly ascii117nderstaffed when compared with the New York Timess.

So imagine if Arianna took the money AOL is cascii117rrently investing in Patch and hired ~500 international joascii117rnalists instead? (The sorts of folks Arianna is hiring cost more than Patch staffers.) Hascii117ffington Post woascii117ld sascii117ddenly become one of the most important and largest original news prodascii117cers in the world!