For the first time in three years AOL on Tuesday posted an increase in global advertising revenue during the company’s earnings call.
The newly reorganized media publisher posted a net loss of $11.8 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $1.05 billion in the same quarter of 2010 when they took a hefty accounting charge.
Total revenue for the company fell by eight percent in the quarter to $542.2 million, led largely by the company’s incredible shrinking subscription service which lost 23 percent of its subscribers, leaving the service with $201.3 million.
Revenues on the other hand were healthy with a five percent increase to $319 million. The increased ad revenue was the first time since the second quarter of 2008 that the company saw ad growth, an increase that was expected after the company invested $315 million into the purchase of The Huffington Post and an additional $30 million for the purchase of TechCrunch.
AOL also announced that their overall ad revenue for banners, rich media and video increased by 14 percent in Q2 2011, increasing to $137.6 million.
Speaking of his company’s increase in ad revenue CEO Tim Armstrong noted:
“AOL’s return to global advertising growth for the first time since 2008 reflects the hard work of our team and another meaningful step forward in the comeback of the AOL brand.”
Armstrong went on to add:
“AOL is singularly focused on becoming the next great media company for the digital age and we have positioned the company’s best people, technology and assets in front of some of the largest opportunities on the Internet.”
The company continues to move in the right direction, moving many niche property concepts under the newly formed AOL Huffington Post Media Group, while launching various lifestyle sites under the new media moniker including the HuffPost Parents and HuffPost Black Voices among others.
While the news shows positive movement for the company investors were less than impressed, sending AOL shared plunging to $13 in early trading, a decrease of 13.74% overall.