AOL Agrees To Acquire The Huffington Post

[JCMach1]

Source: Huffington Post

...The transaction will create a premier global, national, local, and hyper-local content group for the digital age - leveraged across online, mobile, tablet, and video platforms. The combination of AOL's infrastructure and scale with The Huffington Post's pioneering approach to news and innovative community building among a broad and sophisticated audience will mark a seminal moment in the evolution of digital journalism and online engagement.

The new group will have a combined base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States and 270 million around the world**. Following the close of this transaction, AOL will accelerate its strategy to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, and entertainment produced by thousands of writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe.

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.

"The acquisition of The Huffington Post will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community, and social experiences for consumers," said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL. "Together, our companies will embrace the digital future and become a digital destination that delivers unmatched experiences for both consumers and advertisers."...

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/aol-huffington-post_n_819375.html

---

Headline is misleading... it is more of a merger with Huffington Post taking the lead.

[cal04]

1. Arianna Huffington:When HuffPost Met AOL: "A Merger of Visions"

Arianna Huffington
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/huffington-post-aol_b_819373.html

I've used this space to make all sorts of important HuffPost announcements: new sections, new additions to the HuffPost team, new HuffPost features and new apps. But none of them can hold a candle to what we are announcing today.

When Kenny Lerer and I launched The Huffington Post on May 9, 2005, we would have been hard-pressed to imagine this moment. The Huffington Post has already been growing at a prodigious rate. But my New Year's resolution for 2011 was to take HuffPost to the next level -- not just incrementally, but exponentially. With the help of our CEO, Eric Hippeau, and our president and head of sales, Greg Coleman, we'd been able to make the site profitable. Now was the time to take leaps.

At the first meeting of our senior team this year, I laid out the five areas on which I wanted us to double down: major expansion of local sections; the launch of international Huffington Post sections (beginning with HuffPost Brazil); more emphasis on the growing importance of service and giving back in our lives; much more original video; and additional sections that would fill in some of the gaps in what we are offering our readers, including cars, music, games, and underserved minority communities.

Around the same time, I got an email from Tim Armstrong (AOL Chairman and CEO), saying he had something he wanted to discuss with me, and asking when we could meet. We arranged to have lunch at my home in LA later that week. The day before the lunch, Tim emailed and asked if it would be okay if he brought Artie Minson, AOL's CFO, with him. I told him of course and asked if there was anything they didn't eat. "I'll eat anything but mushrooms," he said.

[Miss_Underestimated]

29. Yikes. Has DU ever been approached by AOL ????

:hide:

[TheWraith]

2. It'll create a new leader in celebrity gossip, misinformation, and pseudo-science.

I have a friend who's written for the HP, so I really don't get any satisfaction out of saying this... but the place is ridiculous.

[harmonicon]

14. +1 (nt)

[Ghost Dog]

15. "social experiences for consumers"

Riiight.

[pam4water]

28. Don't forget 'tasteful' boob photos. When rupert murdoch uses tits to sell stuff it's exploration

but when Huffington does it. It's tasteful.

:sarcasm:

[left on green only]

30. So where do we go now?

I agree with your premise. For some time now I have been observing Huffington Post sliding down into the slim pit of increased accent on celebrity gossip, misinformation, pseudo-science, misleading headlines and intrusive advertising on their pages that is totally out of proportion to the news service that they provide. Question is: where can we now go on the Internet to find progressive news coverage of the events that are happening on this planet? Can anyone out there guide me to a new destination on the Internet? My apologies for veering slightly off topic.

[pam4water]

31. I move over to Democracy Now and the Real News Network. But they are a bit dry.

[left on green only]

33. Thanks! I'll check them out.

Living alone out here in right wing Nazi country, along the southern rim of Yosemite Nat'l Park (Bass Lake), I crave any word I can find spoken from the voice of sanity.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. The Guardian, perhaps?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

[left on green only]

58. Thank you to you as well. I'll also check The Guardian out.

[chrisa]

38. It's a total joke.

The posters are even more idiotic, and they're encouraged by the HP moderators.

[napoleon_in_rags]

3. Good.

I like Arianna H. She showed up to talk at TED incredibly tired, and talked about the importance of sleep. She said in that talk dreamily that "too many icebergs are hitting our titanic", a quote I will never forget. And then she spoke frankly about the very real threat of this country becoming third world. It all adds up to a quality person in m book.

I just wish comments weren't randomly censored on Huffpo. I love DU for the fact you can really come here and say absolutely anything at any time.

[howaboutme]

52. Did she copyright that?

"too many icebergs are hitting our titanic", That's the trend in America where everything is copyrighted to protect the intellectual and commercial value even so-called compassionate charitable organizations are viciously fighting to maintain what they think is theirs.

I agree with you about Arianna.

Censorship is the way the media works to promote their real agenda whether it is about censoring comments or what is or isn't published. DE-consolidating our media would go a long way to creating independence and honesty, and a media that once again works to uncover wrongs and corruption, instead of being beholden to government and corporate interests.

The corporate MSM has an interest in gobbling up sites once they reach critical mass and controlling eyeballs.

[No Passaran]

4. AOL is conservative.. bye bye HP

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. No, CNN is not conservative. They are owned by AOL.

Painfully neutral, but not uber conservative.

[No Elephants]

13. AOL and CNN both lean decidedly right while pretending to be neutral.

[zaj]

20. AOL was spun off in 2009... CNN and TW have nothing to do with them anymore.

[napoleon_in_rags]

56. Oh, thanks for the heads up. nt

I guess we'll see.

[Enthusiast]

36. They do -right. nt

[nyc 4 Biden]

45. AOL is very right-leaning.

Their lead articles from Politics Daily are ridiculously right-leaning. And AOL's headlines on their front page are almost always RW memes.

Even though I do not think much of the Huff Post, I think this is a good thing because Arianna will take control of ALL of AOL's editorial content. Hopefully she will bring AOL back towards the center.

This will affect MANY individuals (mostly older folks) we otherwise wouldnt reach.

[napoleon_in_rags]

55. Arianna is the person to do that.

She was a Republican, married to a Republican, before her divorce brought her in new directions. I think she has an appeal to the right because she knows that scene, she was part of it. And she makes addictive content, I have to admit I visit the Huffpo all the time.

[The Northerner]

7. AOL Agrees To Acquire The Huffington Post

Source: Huffington Post

Below, a press release from AOL and The Huffington Post:

AOL AGREES TO ACQUIRE THE HUFFINGTON POST

Acquisition Will Solidify AOL's Strategy of Creating a Premier Content Network With Local, National and International Reach

Arianna Huffington To Lead Newly Formed The Huffington Post Media Group Which Will Integrate All Huffington Post and AOL Content, Including News, Tech, Women, Local, Multicultural, Entertainment, Video, Community, and More

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/aol-huffington-post_n_819375.html

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

[dmr]

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Thank you for understanding
dmr
DU Moderator

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

This topic has been moved by the moderator of this forum.
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[d_b]

10. RIP 2005 huffpo account.

[chrisa]

39. lol I've been there since 2005 as well. Stopped going there when the place

jumped the shark. Still read once in a while, though.

[cbdo2007]

12. holy sh*t - Huffington post must bring in almost $50 Million per year!?!?!?

They must to sell for $315 Million. That's nuts!! Just from advertising?!?! holy sh*t

[AsahinaKimi]

16. Is AOL anything like

Comcast? Ya know, leaning to the Right? If so, will the Huffington Post become another drudge report?

[LTR]

19. I don't think they care so long as they make money

But it does seem that everything AOL touches turns to shit. Look what happened with Winamp.

Then again, HuffPo is basically chock full o' sensationalist crap, cheesy gossip, misleading headlines, mockrage and irresponsible junk journalism. But if using the same dumbing-down tactics that right-wing media sources use is an effective way of bringing the sheeple to liberal sites, I guess the end justifies the means. And I am quite amused that HuffPo draws more readers than Drudge.

[decidedlyso]

17. Uh-oh

[impik]

18. Let me know when this garbage site is down for good

[EmeraldCityGrl]

21. Time for Keith to organize some investors. n/t

[Astraea]

22. Well, there's the kiss of death.

RIP HP

[Vinnie From Indy]

23. Thank God! - HuffPo will die and maybe a real progressive board will emerge

Arianna just killed HuffPo and cashed out. Cheers!

[okieinpain]

54. haha, what's a real progressive board. n/t.

[Number_Six]

24. Jump the shark?

n/t

[Drunken Irishman]

25. Not like it can get any worse.

[scribble]

26. Disgusted

I've smelled rats at that URL for a long time now.

=-=-=

Huffpo has been writing misleading headlines to nonStories and posting libertarian diary
entries, puffpiece entertainment news and censoring comments for three years now.

Their political coverage comes from Politico as often as not. They carry water for every
WashDC PowerFlake they can identify; and increasingly, those PFs are Republicans. Their
business coverage is worse than krap: It's evil.

I've watched HuffPo get a lot worse over the last fifteen months, and been a little
confused by it. Increasingly, they just chase bandwagons and post technicolor headlines.

Now I know what was going on -- they were getting themselves ready to sell to somebody.

=-=-=

And the announcement comes in Ariana's CEO HappyLetter -- a glad-handing masterpiece of
business krap that millions of us have now seen coming from the CEOs of crooked
companies announcing bad news all over the country. Ariana's is no different.

I suspect there are other shoes to fall.

Nice job, Arianna; you only got $315M, for the largest news site on the web. Only ten
times more than itty bitty TechCrunch got for themselves.

=-=-=

We all still Have To Go To There, as Tina Fey would say.

But like I said; I don't have to like what I see.


m

[kimsarah]

No comment

on the merger. On second thought, gag me with a spoon.

[kimsarah]

32. No comment

on the merger. On second thought, gag me with a spoon.

[Demeter]

27. There Goes the Journalism

Oh when will they ever learn--

[ixion]

34. and thus passes the Huffington Post

[bigworld]

37. Where is AOL getting all this money?

[MilesColtrane]

40. I expect we'll see an influx of cyber-refugees here.

[rosesaylavee]

41. Have stopped reading that regularly anyway...

Just go there now if someone here links to it. It's the People Magazine of online news and more hype than fact.

[greiner3]

42. Where's the link to theOnion.com?

[Javaman]

43. Yay! Another corporate controlled media entity!

Can't have enough of those!

And for those of you who say this is a "merger", Spending $315 million dollars for a "merger" is a heck of a deal, huh? I laugh loud and long at that one.

Personally, I only skim the headlines over at HP, why? because it's just this side short of bubble gum fluff.

[onehandle]

44. Finally! A mega-media source for celebrity boobs and inane slideshows. nt

[TomClash]

46. "Liberalism" . . .

. . . sure does pay damn well. :puke:

[judesedit]

47. As long as it delivers the unbiased facts I am fine with it

This country needs the truth exposed, nothing more, nothing less. Until we can do that, that junk is a smokescreen. Once we can do that, we can have all the trimmings you want. The inequality in this country is astounding. We can no longer say all people even have a chance for equality. As long as the wealthy and corporations dictate everything and get ALL of the perks, we are no longer the country our forefathers envisioned and planned for. The American dream is dead. The corrupt must go and go as soon as possible. Keep exposing the truth for all of our well being. No one should be above the law.

[Joanne98]

48. Will AOL turn Huff Post into a RW RAG? Why are they buying OUR sides stuff?

[Mosaic]

49. Welcome to Corporate Media huffpoo

And welcome to ignore for countless Progressives.

[abqmufc]

50. Isn't AOL part of Time Warner?

Thus is it not correctly to say Time Warner/AOL to buy up last liberal source of media?

The march to fascism becomes louder by the day.

[Dappleganger]

51. From Keith Olbermann's twitter feed regarding the HuffPo purchase..

"Am I missing something or has the primary appeal of The Huffington Post been its independence from big $ media?"

[Chimichurri]

57. I resemble that remark.

Once a republican, always a sellout.

[howaboutme]

53. Ted Turner didn't help the independent media

by selling out CNN just as Arianna did with Huffington.

Why aren't we Democrats using the anti-trust trust busters to break them up? Aren't we in power? I beginning to believe that neither Party is interested in an honest independent media.