The $315m (£222m) deal will create an internet media group with 270 million users, including 117 million in the US.
The purchase price - $300m of which will be in cash - will be paid to co-founders Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer and a few minority shareholders.
Ms Huffington - currently editor of her namesake news service - will head the combined firm's content division.
Arriana Huffington
This means she will take on responsibility for AOL sites such as Engadget and Techcrunch, as well as retaining her current role at the intellectual centre-left website she helped set up in 2005.This is the future of online news.
The Huffington Post does two things very well: It has a clear editorial line, and it makes its readers feel a part of the news by both the social networking stuff on the site, as well as the direct connection with the specific bloggers on the site.
In other words, it gathers like-minded readers who have a vested interest in the news. These readers follow the news like social twitters, or Facebook updates—and just like Twitter or Facebook, it becomes addictive to the user.
The Huffington Post is skewed towards politics and lifestyle & entertainment—but it’s easy to see how it can be a template for other news sites. In fact, of the financial sites, Zero Hedge is probably the one closest to mimicking THP’s concept.
An important issue about the site—and essential for the business model—is that The Huffington Post derives all its revenue from advertising. Anything sold on the website is gravy—it’s the ads that make it a going concern.
This is why AOL felt so confident about buying it: Unlike Murdoch’s purchase of MySpace—which became a money-pit—AOL knows The Huffington Post will stand on its own.
This is why AOL felt so confident about buying it: Unlike Murdoch’s purchase of MySpace—which became a money-pit—AOL knows The Huffington Post will stand on its own.
This deal signals the end of both network news and traditional newspapers: The Huffington Post and other similar sites can provide both written and video news, and deliver it when the user wants it, not at set times in the evening, or every morning at the newsstand.
Expect other sites to ride The Huffington Post’s coattails to big-money deals. Of the financial sites, Zero Hedge is the one most likely to go in that direction.
Expect other sites to ride The Huffington Post’s coattails to big-money deals. Of the financial sites, Zero Hedge is the one most likely to go in that direction.
"This is the future of online news."
ReplyDelete"This deal signals the end of both network news and traditional newspapers: The Huffington Post and other similar sites can provide both written and video news, and deliver it when the user wants it, not at set times in the evening, or every morning at the newsstand."
Wait... is your article a reprint from 2003? This has been the case for years and network news and traditional newspapers have already ended. What still airs or prints is just based on inertia.
I stopped posting on HP about 6 months ago. It's to censored. Kind of lost interest in it because of that.
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