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AOL is Changing its Name, Model, and Results

New York Times reports that AOL, which recently changed its name from America Online, is in the midst of transforming itself from a proprietary Internet service provider, with a large but dwindling number of dial-up subscribers, to an entertainment portal that makes money through online advertising.

The company has announced a flurry of deals this year. AOL has also reached an agreement with Katalyst Films, the California company founded by the actor Ashton Kutcher and the producer Jason Goldman that created the TV show "Beauty and the Geek."

Katalyst will develop five comedy series for AOL, each with at least 20 episodes. AOL already has a children's cartoon, "Princess Natasha," about a student who is also a secret agent, that has crossed from the Web to television, where it is shown on the Cartoon Network. And AOL has started In2TV, a free Web site showing old TV shows.

But the shift has not come without some pain. Among top entertainment portals, AOL was the only one to have a drop in page views at the end of last year, falling 15 percent in December from a year earlier, to 16.6 million page views, according to ComScore Networks, a consulting firm that measures Web use.

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