(14 January 2009 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: AOL has announced a series of developments that it hopes will expand, reposition and monetize its digital publishing business in 2009.

It has created a new business unit, MediaGlow, which will centralise its entire publishing efforts, with the goal of greatly expanding the unit’s global reach in the coming year.

The announcement also completes AOL’s transformation to an advertising supported business. Over the past 18 months AOL has announced the formation of Platform-A, the largest domestic digital advertising platform, which uniquely maximizes online outreach for advertisers, as well as the creation of People Networks, the company’s social media unit, which leverages the power of community properties such as Bebo, AIM and ICQ to reach an audience of more than 92 million unduplicated users worldwide. MediaGlow and its publishing assets will now join Platform-A and People Networks as the third core business for AOL.

AOL chairman and CEO Randy Falco says, “Our vision was to rebuild AOL into three core businesses -- publishing, advertising and social media. With the launch of MediaGlow, we have completed our goal in less than 18 months.

“AOL now efficiently delivers the most relevant and engaging content and is able to uniquely maximize display advertising opportunities for advertisers and publishers across the Web. MediaGlow provides us with the ability to extend our publishing success and puts AOL in a very strong position for the future.”

AOL president, COO Ron Grant says, “Gone are the days when one general portal or social networking site addressed the needs of all consumers. Today’s fragmented online environment requires programming that targets people’s passion points at scale across a range of unique sites.

“Make no mistake, AOL has become a true digital content company. Over the past year, we have mastered the art of producing high-quality vertical and niche programming at scale. Now by centralizing and investing in this infrastructure, we will ensure that we are maximising our potential for monetization.”