I’m not too interested in delving too deeply, but now that Jason, Leonsis, and Miller took off, we can now expect Joe Redling, John Buckley, John McKinley, and someone closer to what I do — Jim Bankoff — to go by next year.

Bankoff is the reason I work for AOL, in a way — he was one of the driving forces behind the Weblogs, Inc. acquisition. He’s the guy who quietly oversees what we’re doing, mastermind behind audience; he’s the guy who didn’t feed me to the legal lions when I broke the FairUse4WM news. He’s been a defender and a proponent, and someone who genuinely gets it. He’s also a really nice guy. But more than that, he and some of these other gentlemen are often described as visionaries within AOL’s oft staid corporate culture (which is probably fairly evident in the numbers and growth in audience). They’re driving the pistons of change, which is catapulting AOL into a second life. I’m sorry to see him go too, and I’m left with a lot of uncertainty that these are the right decisions for AOL and its management to make.