More AOL Cost-Cutting: Dumping Properties; Cutting Back On Blogs

AOL is “sunsetting” (i.e. killing or trying to sell) some of its underperforming units, including Bluestring, Xdrive, AOL Pictures and MyMobile.

TechCrunch has the memo, issued last week, by EVP Kevin Conroy, who oversees the company’s product group. Conroy’s unit will now focus on projects like its Truveo video search, though PaidContent notes that Tim Tuttle, who ran Truveo before AOL acquired it two years and has been managing it since, is now just an advisor.

Meanwhile AOL is also telling bloggers who contribute to its Weblogs group to stop writing, at least for now. Blogs going dark include Diylife.com, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, and DownloadSquad.

Do the cuts have anything to do with the fact that Jeff Bewkes would very much like to sell AOL to Microsoft, Yahoo, or anyone else with a few billion? Maybe, though we’re skeptical. More likely they’re part of a summer of belt-tightening and cuts, prompted by the fact that growth at the company has been miserable.