Pros
In the beginning it was wonderful - we were given all the tools to succeed, including technology and money for freelancers. The people were great to work with and everyone was dedicated to making it a success. We got excellent online journalism training which resulted in many cases in local websites whose quality rivaled that of any daily newspaper.
Cons
As time went on, it became apparent that upper AOL management had no idea what they were doing. They were totally focused on growth rather than establishing a core group of successful sites. Slowly all the advantages we enjoyed disappeared as their focus on growing sucked resources from the rest of us. As local editors, most of us had no business experience yet even we could tell how badly the company was being mismanaged. So when the end came - first in August 2013 and then finally in January 2014 - we were sad but not surprised. The company had taken to hiring kids right out of college with no real life experience so the quality dropped. Some sites were still done professionally but the increasing number of sites run by beginners began to hurt the brand's reputation. What could have been a noble and successfully journalism experience that could have changed the journalistic landscape became a joke to the point that I worried that staying there would hurt my reputation as a journalist. It was very sad.
