AOL is slashing 480 jobs at its regional Patch.com online news network.
The cuts were announced this morning during a conference call by CEO Tim Armstrong, and they come one week after Armstrong made news for publicly firing an employee on the spot after he took a photograph of him during a conference call.
Of Patch’s websites, 60% of them will continue, 20% will partner with traditional media outlets, and the remaining 20% will be shut down.
It’s not clear what will come of local Patch.com websites in Dale City, Lake Ridge, Manassas Park, Manassas, and Woodbridge, as editors for those sites could not immediately be reached for comment Friday morning.
Since launching in 2009, Patch.com set out to provide local news in communities that lacked a daily newspaper, or where there was a need for additional local news coverage. Patch quickly scaled to some 800 websites nationwide, and employed one reporter/editor for each site that covered a geographic editor, and a several sales staff members.
