450 AOL STAFFERS TRIMMED

By JANET WHITMAN

December 14, 2006 -- AOL handed out pink slips to more than 450 staffers yesterday as part of the Internet portal's strategy shift to offer most of its services for free.

The bulk of yesterday's cuts were at AOL's Dulles, Va., headquarters and bringing the company close to its goal, announced in August, of cutting its workforce by 5,000.

After watching millions of its dial-up subscribers defect to faster and cheaper Internet service providers over the past few years, AOL, a unit of media conglomerate Time Warner, decided earlier this year to take the radical step of offering most of its services, including e-mail, for free.

The company is hoping the strategy will attract more users and, in effect, boost its advertising revenue.

AOL is no longer marketing its dial-up service, which was long the company's core business. As a result, AOL has shuttered call centers across the U.S.

The strategy appears to be paying off.

AOL has signed up more than 5 million free accounts since August, Time Warner's operating chief Jeff Bewkes told investors at a recent conference.

That could allow AOL to end the year with as many users as it started with for the first time in four years, Bewkes added.

With its job cuts now largely complete, AOL has a worldwide workforce of about 14,000, including about 4,000 employees in northern Virginia.

Still, more changes could lie ahead under new boss Randy Falco.

AOL wooed Falco, the No. 2 executive at NBC television group, a few weeks ago to take the helm from chief Jonathan Miller, who has since left the company.

janet.whitman@nypost.com