In addition to the hundreds and hundreds in job cuts that AOL is orchestrating worldwide, Arianna Huffington is reshuffling the cards at the editorial mega-institution she now helms. Last week we learned that almost the entire staff of StyleList was laid off, and women’s editorial director Colleen Curtis was out as well. There was also a “decimation” of staff at Politics Daily and Daily Finance. Today, Jeff Bercovici reports that Howard Fineman, formerly of Newsweek before he was at Huffpo, will be an editorial director. Newspaper vet John Montorio will be a cultural editor, and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone will be a consultant on “social impact.” There is a report that AOL Music cut its staff from eleven to six, and AllThingsD reported over the weekend that two top editors at Endgadget (E-i-C Josh Topolsky and managing ed Nilay Patel) have also called it quits.
Not all the news coming out of Astor Place is bad, however. Apparently the editorial-nap-zone trend is spreading: Employees received a memo on Friday informing them of the installation of a temporary “nap pod” and massage chair. Eventually, this will be replaced by a nap room called, wait for it, “NapQuest.”
