Who makes the final curtain call for AOL daily headlines?

As a long time end user (these last two words out of parlance), I got hooked as an AOL advocate after signing up for the mail service almost thirty years ago and have not turned back since.

Curiosity got the better part of me...,

(but no cat got killed

in the writing of this blurb)
regarding who decides
which people populate
the first daily AOL screen each day,
(or subsequent frames the viewers espy),
and thus the resultant outcome.

In short, human editors at AOL
cull the webbed wide world
to make tough task to concur top choice
and vet among various and sundry sources
to determine who makes
the final call on the day's headlines,
utilizing data to ensure the content relevant
and engaging to their audience.

The celebrities and headlines featured
on the AOL homepage are determined
by the AOL editorial team,
who use a mix
of editorial judgment
and data analytics and discovered vis a vis
who made the penultimate choice...
to determine who or what appears
as newsworthy on the first screen of AOL,
no matter ofttimes yours truly begs to differ
who headlines initial screen
usually a repeat picture of celebrity/ies
inducing me to utter a rebel yell
more often than not
a famous person doth not sit well
with me a proletariat
so pretty please
do not make overtures with William Tell

nor would yours truly know
whom this long establishment
client ist ed �" me
a member of said email service
for almost thirty years,
whereat the brainchild primary founder
and driving force behind
America Online (AOL)
credited to Steve Case,
who co-founded the company in 1985
(originally as Quantum Computer Services),
transforming said electronic entity
(now a behemoth)
into the leading internet service provider
that made the web accessible
to everyday Americans
with its famous
"You've Got Mail" service,

and other figures like Jim Kimsey
and Marc Seriff
also involved in the early days,
Case best known as the visionary leader
who grew AOL into a dominant force
in the early internet era.

Now - AOL currently acquired
by Italian tech company

Bending Spoons from
Apollo Global Management,
the private equity firm that bought AOL
(along with Yahoo)
from Verizon in 2021, which deal,

slated to be closed late 2025,

brings AOL under Bending Spoons,

(which also owns other digital brands
like Evernote and Vimeo),
adding their portfolio alongside Yahoo.

The latest update courtesy Google search
when did bending spoons acquire aol?
yielded the following result:

Bending Spoons announced
agreement to acquire AOL
from Apollo Global Management
(which owned it via Yahoo)
on October 29, 2025,
with the deal expected to close
by the end of that year or early 2026,
following regulatory approvals,
which acquisition of the internet pioneer,
valued around $1.5 billion

financed partly by $2.8 billion
in debt, notes TechCrunch and Forbes.

As a non Business Management major,
not even a minor bit player,
actually I abandoned pursuing
advanced degree post high school
linkedin with mental health issues,
and whose very long gap year
(more like gap half-century)
remained steadfast to tried and true
and admits outright that he,
became an adherent
and unwitting lifelong client
when America Online (AOL)
began their famous free CD/
floppy disk campaign
in the early 1990s (around 1993)
to introduce the internet to the masses,
offering free trial hours to entice users,
a strategy that exploded
throughout the decade
and made AOL a household name
by flooding mailboxes, stores,
and even cereal boxes with discs.

Now since I became computer literate
aligned with one of the
most popular email service providers,
who perhaps inaccurately misperceived
and automatically presumed discord,

when all along,
the agreement considered mutual
among the managing entities involved
regarding transaction, not a hostile takeover
that required convincing reluctant management

unlike one aggressive takeover
characterized as pell mell
(read forced acquisition) between
when all parties noted involved,
where one company over-ruled
and subsumed by another,
especially when the target's management
resists, hostile takeover,
also known as a corporate raid,
where the acquirer bypasses
the board and appeals directly
to shareholders to gain control
and in conclusion I do kvell

knowing more of the AOL history
now think twice before ejaculating
that AOL decision makers
go to aitch eee elle elle.