Despite AOL’s recent layoffs, the Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) unit is beginning to staff up on its programming side. FanHouse, the all-encompassing sports blog that operates under AOL’s MediaGlow programming unit, has just hired five former newspaper journalists and one senior editor as it tries to take advantage in the coverage holes that many cities are experiencing as news staffs have slimmed down. “We don’t take any joy in the turmoil currently happening at newspapers, but we do see an increased role for FanHouse, as well as other channels like the Money & Finance site,” AOL programming SVP Marty Moe told me. Moe runs the sports and money sites, as well as AOL News, Weblogs and KOL. “And we’re accelerating and professionalizing our staff to assume that role.”

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In addition to the new hires, who include erstwhile Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Greg Couch, former Newark Star-Ledger baseball reporter Dan Graziano and Jeff Fletcher, who previously worked for the NYTCo’s Santa Rosa Press Democrat and Tribune Company’s LAT, FanHouse could hire more as it focuses on ramping up its baseball coverage, Moe said.

FanHouse isn’t the only MediaGlow unit that’s doing some hiring. StyleList.com, which is part of the AOL Living network, is also expected to announce three new staffers this morning, with two new faces coming from the AP and Harper’s Bazaar.