'Times' Hansell Takes Buyout, Joins AOL's Robo-News Site Seed

Seed, AOL's soon-to-launch news service designed to closely track search trends and use a series of filters for plagiarism, obscenities, and other human weaknesses, has a programming director.

Saul Hansell, a longtime tech reporter for the New York Times, announced his own appointment on his personal blog.

Hansell's name is now among the growing (and growing) list of Times staffers who've accepted buyouts, as compiled by Gawker's Hamilton Nolan, using reports from Politico, Business Insider, the New York Post, and others. Times management is seeking to cut 100 people from its newsroom. In a memo Bill Keller sent to his staff in October (here reproduced by the New York Observer's John Koblin), the paper's executive editor wrote, "Let me cut to the chase: We have been told to reduce the newsroom by 100 positions between now and the end of the year…. We hope to accomplish this by offering voluntary buyouts."

The release posted on Hansell's blog doesn't get too specific, but says, "Saul will be reporting to Mike Rich, senior vice president of AOL Entertainment, and will be responsible for leveraging Seed across all of AOL's platforms."

Currently in beta, Seed has already drawn criticism. The Atlantic Wire's Carl Franzen collected a long list of links (including from this blogger) condemning or questioning Seed's model.