[dhimes]

TL;DR: It's a well written chronicle of the corporate communication that occurred during the restructuring of cinematical.com/moviefone.com under AOL after they were bought from Huffington. The author wrote freelance for cinematical. After the editor-in-chief at cinematical resigned (and two other editors there had resigned), the editor-in-chief of moviefone was apparently put in charge of corralling the freelancers. The author is responsible for starting the internet backlash which led to the firing of the editor-in-chief at moviefone. He respects her a lot and regrets his involvement in bringing about her termination.

[bambax]

This is the kind of post that really should not be TL;DRed, because it's so much fun to read. The story is sad and even infuriating, and not very original either (since all corporate takeovers are done in the same cowardly manner by weasels); but the writing is wonderful.

> The transition was going to be arduous and complicated. This was particularly true for the people who write AOL's press releases, who had to work overtime issuing statements with business terms like "restructuring" (which means firing people), "streamlining" (which also means firing people), "re-branding" (which means making people forget all the negative associations they have with AOL and Arianna Huffington), and "synergy" (which doesn't mean anything).

[michaelbuckbee]

I think that AOL/Huff has actually been fairly distinct in how badly they have handled these layoffs. It seems like "Transition 101" to share the fired/staying personell information all at once. To drag it out over any period of time just seems extremely odd.

[bambax]

It was handled in a Monthy Python's way, as per the opening credits of The Holy Grail:

> A Møøse once bit my sister ...

We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.

Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...

We apologise again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.

Møøse trained by TUTTE HERMSGERVORDENBROTBORDA

(...)

The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked.

The credits have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute.

(etc.)

- - -

It's unwise to fire the firers at the same time as the firees.

[kmfrk]

AOL has long tradition of laying people off sporadically: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-aol-layoffs-....

Don't assume this a new thing.

[dhimes]

It was actually quite lengthy- I for one appreciate a TLDR on even the good reads to let me decide if I should spend the time on it right then.

[jrwoodruff]

I would add that AOL let go most of the freelancers, retaining only a select few to fill the gap while they got their 'unpaid bloggers' lined up to fill the content void. And that the freelancers who had been let go were offered the 'opportunity' to continue writing, without pay, as unpaid bloggers.

[kprobst]

> TL;DR

But then you'd miss this:

"Non-paid blogger system"? Please. We may be whores, but we are not sluts.

Genius.