AOL is planning to lay off 1,300 employees in three call centers around the U.S. The Internet company's Jacksonville, Florida call center will be closed and centers in Tucson, Arizona and Ogden, Utah will lose some staff.

According to the New York Times, the elimination of 7% of the company's employees should help save $1 billion in costs.

Although AOL enjoyed a 26% gain in advertising money, profits were down 17%, a result of the loss of 835,000 subscribers.

AOL tried to spin the bad news in a positive way. The Associated Press quoted AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham on how smart and self sufficient AOL users are now: "They are able to accomplish with a couple of clicks what it used to take them a phone call or two or three to accomplish."

Graham said calls to AOL's help-desks were down 50%, something he sees as the mark of good self-service tools and "savvy and sophisticated" customers.

AOL closed an Orlando call center late last year; 700 people lost their jobs.