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AOL Content Chief David Eun Out as Arianna Settles In

AOL content chief David Eun, the former Googler tasked with transforming AOL into a premier content destination on the web, is leaving the company, he told staffers Thursday.

Eun’s departure comes as Arianna Huffington is preparing to take the reins of AOL’s sprawling content operation, following the company’s $315 million acquisition of her website, The Huffington Post. Concomitant with Eun’s departure, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced a number of other organizational changes in the company, in anticipation of the merger’s consummation.

With Huffington about to assume control of all of AOL’s content properties, Eun, a hard-working and likable executive, found himself as the odd man out.

“With the historic acquisition of The Huffington Post, my role and responsibilities as President, AOL Media are changing,” Eun said in a memo to staffers Thursday. “Tim and I have discussed at length how I might continue within the new organizational structure, but ultimately there isn’t a role that matches what I am seeking to do.

Eun is but the latest high-profile executive to leave AOL over the last year as the company has struggled to execute on CEO Tim Armstrong’s ambitious goal of turning the once-dominant internet on-ramp into a leading source of high-quality content. Last year, AOL News and Information chief Marty Moe left the company after many years running various websites in the network.

The executive churn, coupled with Huffington’s imminent arrival, has left some AOL staffers pondering the future — of the company and their roles in it.

“The uncertainty is rising by the day as sites are left wondering what their individual fate will be,” said one AOL insider.

Clearly the company is making a big bet on Huffington, who has turned her group-blog and news website into a major media force.

“I think the mood for the survivors is that Arianna at least has some vision, which is something Eun never had,” said another AOL insider. “We hope we still have the leeway to be creative instead of pumping out rewrites on Google trends.”

In a memo to staffers, Armstrong announced several organizational changes designed, in his words, to “deliver meaningful improvements to AOL’s overall business agility and speed as we tackle the focused vision we have as a company.”

In addition to Eun’s departure, the two other big changes are:

The Huffington Post Media Group will house all content and “local experiences” under Huffington, whose new title will be President & Editor-in-Chief.

IAC vet Jon Brod will become COO of the Huffington Post Media Group, in addition to his current role as President, AOL Ventures.

(Disclosure: Author Sam Gustin worked at AOL before coming to Wired.com.)

Armstrong and Eun memos follow:

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Sam Gustin was a New York-based Staff Writer at Wired.com through June, 2011.
Follow @samgustin on Twitter.