Senior AOL Exec Ted Leonsis to Play Reduced Role

By: Ted Leonsis, the AOL senior executive who helped steer his company's transition into a provider of free services supported by advertising, will step down from active management while continuing in an advisory capacity.

Leonsis, 50, currently vice chairman of AOL and president of its ad-focused audience business, said Friday he still plans to work every day but wants to avoid burnout by reducing the need to attend constant meetings and pore over reports over the weekend.

Dropping those duties would let him devote more time to such interests as sports and films, he said. He is majority owner of hockey's Washington Capitals and a minority owner of basketball's Washington Wizards. He also is producer of the documentary "Nanking," scheduled to premiere next year.

"I wouldn't mind going to one of my hockey games or taking time off to go to Sundance (film festival) and not feel guilty," Leonsis said in an interview.

Leonsis, who will retain his title of vice chairman, said he will remain influential as a visionary and strategist after the change takes effect Jan. 1.

"I have carte blanche to run in and yell at people and tell them how to change things," he said.

AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller credited Leonsis as "the driving force" behind the shift in business models at AOL.

Over the past two years, AOL has been making more and more of its services free, to boost advertising revenue and offset declines in its subscription-based Internet access business. The transition accelerated last month with AOL's decision to give away AOL.com e-mail accounts and various software once reserved for paying subscribers.

AOL is not expected to name a replacement. The company plans to soon announce management changes to reflect last month's strategic shift and said Leonsis' decision was unrelated to that.

Earlier, the Time Warner Inc. unit formerly known as America Online said it expects to drop as many as 5,000 employees from its payroll, out of a global work force of 19,000. Those positions are mostly in marketing and customer service.

Leonsis joined AOL in 1993, when the company acquired Redgate Communications Corp., a new-media marketing company he founded.

He said he plans to pursue other entrepreneurial opportunities, both for AOL and on his own. One idea, he said, was to combine his interests in movies, the Internet and philanthropy to create a platform for filmmakers to make pieces on human rights for distribution in theaters and online.