#TIM ARMSTRONG 2020 SERIES#

“Most platforms that have been building around live content look at Snapchat and Facebook. “Live content is really important,” notes Armstrong. The 13,000-square-foot space also will be street-level to encourage audience interaction. It announced at its NewFronts event that Build will get a new studio in downtown Manhattan that will be equipped with 360-degree filming capabilities.

#TIM ARMSTRONG 2020 SERIES#

Meanwhile, the company is pumping resources into Build, a streaming series that shoots four hours of live interviews or other events every day. Maymann says the technology is being integrated into all of HuffPost’s markets and that AOL will have a video player with 360-degree capabilities within the next month. Last month, it acquired VR firm RYOT to create a new content arm under HuffPost. On the content side, AOL is investing heavily in virtual reality and live programming. We think there’s a need for a media company to compete with the biggest out there and we think we have a chance of being that company.” We’ve been able to do a number of M&A deals over the course of the last year, and we still want to be very aggressive. There are certain things we can do organically but we need to accelerate, and having Verizon behind you helps push through some of those things. “But at the same time, we’ve also known that scale is important. “We invest heavily in content,” says Maymann. A big part of his vision for the company involves Maymann, who was promoted to his role running content in August after three years as CEO of AOL-owned The Huffington Post. “The Verizon deal has given us an incredible opportunity to scale that vision to a degree that would have been impossible without them.”Īrmstrong joined AOL in 2009 and is attributed with transforming it from the legacy technology company that entered into a disastrous merger with Time Warner into a multi-billion business attractive to Verizon because of its advertising platform and media brands. “We’re sitting at the collision of the future of media and the future of advertising,” he says, speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in an interview following the presentation. For Armstrong, that means setting out to reach an audience of 2 billion in the next four years, up from a total reach of 500 million unique users today.

Tim armstrong 2020