[H]ardOCP:

AOL has been busy launching specialized web sites that target specific demographics, such as parents or country music fans. Execs believe that the consumer market is fragmenting and want to put themselves in front of as many pieces as they can. According to the article, traffic is up but ad revenue is flat so the jury is still out on the success of this venture.



Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research, warned that all of AOL’s niche offerings may not attract the total numbers they’re seeking. "There’s no way they can possibly anticipate all the ways consumers will want to bend and shape their own content," Epps said. But she credited AOL for trying. "They need to do something different. They need to keep innovating and experimenting and sometimes fail (in order to) find things that do work."



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