NY Times Relaunching About.com

It's been nine months since the New York Times Company bought About.com, and it looks like they finally may be doing something with it. According to a DMNews article, About.com is "about" to get a relaunch. There appears to be a 5-prong strategy in place:

- Improve content and quality
- Reintroduce the brand to the ad industry
- Redesign site to improve user experience
- More emphasis on partnerships
- Support other NY Times properties

Ok, so it sounds like a good plan, but About.com has a long way to go.

Someone needs to be tough on About.com. The DMNews article clearly isn't being tough at all. About.com still has popup ads people! And DMNews points out that About.com authors are experts in search engine optimization. Does this mean they are sacrificing quality of content to get more search referrals?

I think the NY Times Company bought About.com for the ad revenue. That's what I see About.com as... content created solely to generate revenue, not to help the user. Will the NY Times Company turn it around? I think when the redesign launches, we'll be able to immediately see what their commitment to quality is.