Re: AOL buying the Puffington Host
Steve: Here’s the press release on the Post. The comments are entertaining. Several accuse Arianna Huffington of selling out to corporatism, others accuse AOL of wasting their money, some wonder why AOL is suddenly lurching left. It seems to me that a whole lot of bloggers at a slew of major sites have reasons for concern now:
As part of the transaction, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more.
That’s quite the little media empire to put in the hands of a political gadfly/agitator.
Wow, didn’t know about that part.
Who thought AOL would go full-partisan?
They’ve been heading left for a while now. I’ve noticed it any time they’ve covered Palin or Glenn Beck, for instance. Oh sure, they try to couch it cleverly so it’s not like Olby or HuffPo, but still, the slant has been apparent for quite some time now.
But this pretty much is going to turn off at least half their basic users, won’t it? Especially if Arianna and her staff are in charge of all content?
Yeah, that was how I read the article I skimmed this morning. So basically they paid her $315 million to let her take them over?
Where have they been getting the money for this and all their other recent acquisitions? Because I can’t see them collecting it from AOL users… Does anyone pay them for content anymore?
Here’s another question: if you want to become the new American News source (or whatever they’re calling it), why would you buy a website with the journalistic gravitas of the National Enquirer? It’s true enough that el Presidente thinks they’re a legitimate news operation, but he also thinks he’s Reagan now, so his opinion is highly suspect…
Actually, Elaine, the Enquirer usually does solid work. They learned their lesson after a very expensive libel suit back in the ’80s. I can’t remember the plaintiff — other than that they were quite famous — but since then the Big E has backed up its claims.
Steve,
You’re right. I stand corrected. I was thinking of their old reputation, back in the 80s when they were covering Bat Boy and stuff…
Oooh, don’t confuse the Enquirer for the Weekly World News — home of Bat Boy and, of course, the mysterious Spider Woman of India. It’s my second-favorite publication, after the Tatler.