* AOL rolls out trades for energy, defense, government
* Seeks to bring social media to online trade publishing
NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - AOL Inc <AOL.N> is launching aprofessional division called AOL Industry on Monday aimed at government,energy and defense executives.
The idea is to bring the use ofsocial media, video and design from consumer-oriented sites and apply itto media for business professionals.
"(Trade media) hasn't doneas good a job at innovating as consumer media," said Jay Kirsch, vicepresident and general manager of AOL Industry, who pitched the idea toAOL at the end of last summer.
"If you look at most of theinnovations that have really changed media most of them have beenconsumer facing and not business-to-business."
AOL Energy rolledout first and will be followed by AOL Government and AOL Defense inJune. AOL Industry is not charging a subscription for access and willnot have a print component.
AOL is moving into a crowded spacedominated by several types of trade magazines as well as Bloomberg,Thomson Reuters <TRI.N> <TRI.TO>, and News Corp's<NWSA.O> Dow Jones.
"We are going to offer a social onlineenvironment that is not available elsewhere -- stealing a page a littlebit from the Huffington Post and inviting industry executives to be partof the conversation as well," Kirsch said.
Kirsch, who was theformer CEO of Imaginova, the publisher of the aerospace trade websiteSpace News, has made about eight hires so far.
Peter Gardett, the former bureau chief of Argus Media, is editor of AOL Energy.
Wyatt Kash, who recently served as editor-in-chief of GovernmentComputer News and Defense Systems, is editor of AOL Government.
Colin Clark, who covered Congress and intelligence for Space News, is AOL Defense editor.
(Reporting by Jennifer Sa