AOL's chief upbeat on rebooting the brand

NEW YORK - A lot has changed at AOL Inc. as it tries to shed the vestiges of its '90s image: the iconic "You've got mail" greeting and the promotional CDs stuffed into mailboxes across the country.

The Internet company has engaged in an artsy rebranding, rolled out hundreds of local news sites, and in March bought the online news hub the Huffington Post for $315 million.

At the helm is chief executive officer Tim Armstrong, whom AOL hired from Google to stage a turnaround.

Armstrong has led AOL since April 2009. Eight months later, he oversaw its separation from Time Warner Inc. and debut as a publicly traded company - nearly nine years after the two companies merged in a bad marriage.

During his tenure, Armstrong, 40, has tried to hone AOL's focus on online content and advertising - a tricky task for a company with roots as a dial-up Internet access provider.

That transition began well before Armstrong's arrival. Yet despite Armstrong's experience as Google's advertising chief for North and South America, AOL still struggles. Its online ad revenue fell last year and is down again so far this year, despite an improving market.

Still, by doing such things as cutting employees, shedding less-profitable websites, and purchasing new ones such as the Huffington Post, Armstrong is optimistic AOL can succeed.

In an interview at company headquarters in New York's East Village, he talked about why he wanted to lead AOL and how it is going so far.

Question: Why did you think it would be a good idea to leave Google for AOL?

Answer: AOL as a brand has touched hundreds of millions of people around the world. Reigniting that brand is a very exciting challenge and a big opportunity. I think the Internet is still in the early innings. Especially when we look at content or some things we're investing in, those models are still being figured out, so there's a big opportunity there.

Q: How will AOL's content business change with the acquisition of the Huffington Post?