Jason splits
OK, it’s not exactly unusual for entrepreneurs to leave the companies they’ve sold, and my old boss Jason Calacanis certainly stayed at AOL longer than a lot of people expected him to. But his announcement this morning that he’s leaving is still something of a disappointment. After all, he came in really believing he was going to change AOL, and by all accounts, he was making some headway. Certainly his transformation of Netscape from a third-tier 1999-style portal to a cutting-edge social news site was nothing short of amazing. Not only is Netscape now a credible competitor to Digg, but it has a range of features that put it light years ahead of Digg—most notably the human “Navigators,” who do more than any algorithm ever could to keep the site fresh and largely free of the kind of gaming that has haunted Digg since its launch. Still, with the impending departure of Ted Leonsis and Jon Miller’s replacement by Randy Falco, Jason probably saw the writing on the wall. Miller and Leonsis embraced Jason’s brash, in-your-face style of doing business (which isn’t that different from Leonsis’ own style), and without them to back him up, he was on terra incognita. The real question now isn’t where Jason’s going—I have no doubt he’s already got a half-dozen business plans spinning in his head. The question is what will happen to Jason’s initiatives at AOL, especially Netscape, which continues to expand its operation and recently announced it was hiring an Editor in Chief. Netscape has the potential to become a glorious example of new new journalism—or an incredible mess dominated by ads, spam and porn. Jason was doing a great job of making sure it would become the former; time will tell if those efforts continue after his departure.
