UPDATE: AOL Patch Jettisons 40 Percent of Staff

Image via CrunchBase

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong last Friday took actions promised in his earnings call to investors (see "TUOL" posts 8/7/13 & 8/9/13), laying off 40 percent of the staff of the Patch hyperlocal news sites.

Reports on the number of workers actually pink-slipped to reach that 40 percent figure ranged from 350 to 480, in various news accounts of the staff reduction by BusinessInsider.com, JimRomanesko.com and the Associated Press. In a brief 9-minute call during which he took no questions, Armstrong said 60 percent of Patch sites would continue to operate, 20 percent would consolidate or shut down and 20 percent would seek to operate jointly with other entities.

Patch staffers complained to Romanesko.com that Patch Regional Editors were not consulted before the axing began, and accused AOL of randomly targeting employees based on recommendations by an outside consulting firm, rather than on the unlucky workers' performance.