USA Today reporter, Jefferson Graham, wonders if Randy Falco, a seasoned TV exec who became CEO of AOL last November, is running the once-dominant online service as a TV network?
“When we first came here, I thought this business wasn’t that different from the other businesses I’ve run,” he said in an interview with USA TODAY. “It’s a pipeline business.”
His TV experience taught him that new shows bring in new viewers and help create excitement — an approach he felt could do wonders for AOL. “We didn’t have enough great programs in the pipeline, so I spent the first months reorganizing,” he says.
Falco believes the emphasis on new programming and heavy promotion will help AOL to “become once again the pre-eminent site on the Web,” which he predicts could happen by the end of 2008.
I don’t know if Falco understands the interweb, but my guess is he knows how to sell big time advertisers expensive space on his network.
