Peter Land, head of communications at AOL, is leaving his job, marking the third public relations guru to get chopped in just over three years. The news is likely unwelcome for those covering the company as they’ll have to start relationship building all over again.
Ad Age’s Alex Kantrowitz broke the story:
AOL and Peter Land, its head of communications, are parting ways, Mr. Land confirmed on Tuesday. He declined to elaborate.
Mr. Land, who joined AOL from Pepsico in April 2013, did not have it easy in his year at the company. Over the past 12 months, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong had a number of public miscues that gained national attention, including the citing of “distressed babies” born to AOL employees as a reason for rolling back benefits and the firing of Patch creative director Abel Lenz in the middle of a conference call.
The Wall Street Journal story by Mike Shields and William Launder went into more detail about the ouster and AOL’s highly public missteps:
Mr. Land’s departure comes following a string of rough public relations episodes for Mr. Armstrong. Last August. Mr. Armstrong fired a Patch employee for taking an unwanted photograph during an internal employee conference call.
Then in February, during an AOL employee town hall event, made what has become an infamous comment about “distressed babies.” In explaining why the company was altering its 401K policy, he blamed two employees’ troubled pregnancies for costing AOL several million dollars. Mr. Armstrong eventually back tracked on that policy, but the damage had been done.
Still, the timing of Mr. Land’s ouster is strange, consider that AOL–and Mr. Armstrong– seemed to have turned the page. AOL reported fairly solid earnings back in February. Mr. Armstrong has recently announced several big advertising technology initiatives that have drawn industry praise. And next week, the company is set to host advertisers in New York for its annual NewFront event, where it will look to generate buzz around several new shows.
While media companies change their public relations strategies somewhat frequent, the move push out Mr. Land is just the latest in an ongoing pattern for AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who seems to fall in and out of love with senior executives. For example, in late 2012 AOL said it was eliminating its chief marketing officer positions just five months after the company hired Jolie Hunt to fill that role. By this past August, the had a new CMO of AOL Advertising, Erika Nardini.
PR Week’s story by Diana Bradley highlighted that AOL chose to promote the head of investor relations to run communications:
The company has expanded the duties of IR head Eoin Ryan and AOL Advertising CMO Erika Nardini to oversee communications following Land’s departure, an AOL spokesperson said. Ryan will handle corporate communications, while Nardini will manage internal communications, corporate marketing, and foundation work.
“We are investing in our communications function by promoting two of our most talented up and coming leaders – connecting the entirety of our internal and external communications strategy under a high-powered and unified team,” the company spokesperson said in a statement.
AOL corporate communications director Doug Serton reportedly also left the company a few weeks ago, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Putting a head of IR in charge of communications could be a big mistake. Most IR heads understand talking to investors and presenting financials, while communications officers often have to deal with grayer areas. In particular, cleaning up the mess of Armstrong’s comments about “distressed babies” would be a challenge for anyone, but could be especially challenging for someone not used to dealing with the mainstream media and consumers.
The reporters covering AOL will have to get used to a new way of working with the company — again. Most business journalism is relationships and often the primary one on a beat is with the head of communications. Being the person whose call gets returned first can be the difference between breaking or chasing the news.
But it’s more than getting along. A new communications team means learning how best to ask questions and anticipate the spin the company will give you. You have to learn how the new communications executive will answer questions and how much detail he will give without being prodded. While learning style takes time, I’m sure the reporters covering the company have little incentive to work on getting to know the new communications head. If history proves correct, he won’t be there long.
