AOL to Cut up to 500 Jobs from Patch

May close or consolidate many local sites

AOL on Friday moved to cut losses at Patch, its struggling local news service, eliminating as many as 500 positions and closing or consolidating many of its sites across the country.

The cuts were an effort to reach profitability in a division that has failed to gain traction with consumers and has suffered huge losses financially. Patch's troubles have been a source of frustration for AOL's chief executive, Tim Armstrong, who helped found the service in 2007 when he was an executive at Google. Shortly after arriving at AOL in 2009, Mr. Armstrong had the company acquire Patch.