Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington: ‘Enormous opportunities’ for online video channel

Paul McNally — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:29:06 +0000

The Huffington Post has announced the launch of a new online video channel this summer, at a conference to coincide with the site’s first anniversary under AOL ownership.

The HuffPost Streaming Network will launch this summer and feature original programming and debates, produced from studios in New York and Los Angeles. Editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington said the project would launch with 12 hours of daily programming and would eventually go to 24 hours.

Beet.tv’s Andy Plesser spoke to Huffington at the press conference.

She said:

It’s going to be really produced, not in any way thrown together.

The opportunities are enormous from the point of view of advertising. More and more of our readers want to consume video. It is completely interactive.

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Huffington Post UK launches tool for greater debate around news stories

Rachel McAthy — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:04:11 +0000

Huffington Post UK has launched The Gauge, a new platform which invites debate around the biggest news story of the day on the Post’s new UK website while harnessing the power of social networks.

The tool also works to produce a visualisation of the results, giving a quick snapshot of the overall standpoint of the online community on any given topic.

Users are invited to “agree” or “disagree” with a daily proposition, and thereafter they’re invited to elaborate. It only takes a second or two to weigh in, and users can post more detailed responses on Twitter and Facebook.

The tool will also help to connect users to the site’s bloggers, through the ability to agree or disagree with their views and click through to see all the posts written by the individual. Users can also submit ideas for their own blog through The Gauge.

Editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post UK, Carla Buzasi, will be speaking at news:rewired – connected journalism on 6 October as part of the “bringing the outside in” panel. On the day Carla will be discussing the site’s strategy for drawing in content from outside its own four walls and how this is then integrated into its own output.Similar Posts:

#jpod in depth: Huffington Post lands in the UK

Joseph Stashko — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:31:53 +0000

In this week’s podcast, we take a look at the launch of the Huffington Post UK, which went live on Wednesday. Alastair Campbell described the launch as having ‘perfect timing’ at a panel debate arranged by Huffington Post.

We spoke to editor-in-chief Carla Buzasi along with two Huffington Post bloggers. Patrick Smith, media commentator and editor of the Media Briefing also offers his thoughts on how he sees the site developing in future as well as the unpaid blogger debate.

You can sign up to our iTunes podcast feed for future audio.

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News of the World: Reaction to closure of 168-year-old title

Joseph Stashko — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:33:12 +0000

The News of the World has announced it is to close, with the final edition to be published this Sunday, and already the blogs have begun posting reaction.

Paul Bradshaw writes:

It took almost exactly 3 days – 72 hours – to kill off a 168-year-old brand. Yes, there were other allegations and two years in the lead up to The Guardian’s revelation that Milly Dowler was targeted by the newspaper. But Milly Dowler and the various other ordinary people who happened to be caught up in newsworthy events (kidnappings, victims of terrorist attacks, families of dead soldiers), were what turned the whole affair.

So while the Sun may be moving to seven-day production, that doesn’t make this a rebranding or a relaunch. As of Monday, The News of the World brand is dead, 168 years of journalistic history offered up as a sacrifice.

Charlie Beckett comments:

From the Newscorp point of view this is a sensible way to try to put this scandal into the past and to separate it from the BSkyB deal. It does not get to the bottom of the phone-hacking issue, however, leaving big questions against Rebekah Brooks. It does seem that Rupert Murdoch would rather shut a newspaper than sack his loyal lieutenant.

While the Huffington Post is now leading with “End Of The World” as its liveblog of the closure.

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‘Perfect timing’ for HuffPo UK, says Alastair Campbell

Joseph Stashko — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:57:21 +0000

The Huffington Post is launching in the UK at the perfect time, says Alastair Campbell.

Speaking at Millbank Tower on a panel for the official launch event, Campbell said the British public are facing up to what newspapers have become – positioning Arianna Huffington’s news website in the perfect place to cause disruption.

Newspapers in this country are going further and further down the barrel until they reach the bottom, like the Sun. We’ll still have newspapers in future, there’ll just be fewer of them.

The panel (moderated by Richard Bacon) comprised of HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington, Kelly Osbourne, Jon Gaunt, Celia Walden and Shami Chakrabarti. Key themes that emerged throughout the debate were phone hacking, superinjunctions, the public perception of journalism and the issue of trust.

Huffington responded to claims from Toby Young that the launch was ill-timed by saying the website has “a phenomenal reach”, and its social nature would set it apart from other more well established UK sites.

Huffington Post is a combination of constant updates. It’s not about sitting on the couch and passively consuming, it’s about constantly passing on information, sharing and liking.

We employ 1,300 journalists, editors and reporters, but ulimately Huffington Post is a platform for our 9,000 bloggers. We promote linking, original reporting and making information available, people blog for us because they can use our huge audience and because they have something to say.

Jon Gaunt agreed with this, saying Huffington endeared herself to her bloggers by making her website very open. But he also criticised many newspapers’ forays into digital journalism.

Lots of newspaper websites are useless, because they’re made and look like newspapers. They’re created by people who’ve worked in newspapers their whole lives, and look terrible.

One thing the panel agreed on was the issue of trust and the role it would play in the future development of journalism. Summing up, Campbell said:

The single most important piece of communication regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden was still Barack Obama’s words, despite the thousands of articles written about the event.

Politicians still have ability to set the agenda, but people don’t trust politicians, journalists or economists – we still trust each other.

That’s why social news works – we talk to people we trust.

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Huffington Post UK: Writing for free is a ‘grey area’

Joseph Stashko — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:40:56 +0000

As the Huffington Post goes live with its UK site today, ahead of the official launch event this evening, many journalists feel the site is wrong to recruit 300 unpaid bloggers.

Dave Lee, freelance journalist at the BBC, thinks that the Huffington Post causes damage to journalism.

While Manchester-based freelance journalist Louise Bolotin criticised Arianna Huffington for her policy.

@louisebolotin
Louise BolotinSo Arianna Huffington @HuffPostUK is too tight even to pay ex-PM Tony Blair for blogging. No way will the other 300 bloggers get paid then
Jul 06 via EchofonFavorite RetweetReply

However, not all reaction has been negative. Kat Brown has written a piece for Huffington Post’s lifestyle section titled Writing for Free Doesn’t Have to Mean Betrayal.

Writing for free is a grey area. Despite the ubiquity (and importance) of blogs and that many high profile sites trade content for prestige only, it’s often looked down upon if it makes up part of your career. When, as a newly-hatched post-grad, I joined one journalism forum, the stance was: “Don’t write unless you’re paid. It undermines you and it undermines journalism.”

So why write for free?

Free is why people write fanzines, update blogs and tweet. It’s pressure off, it’s the opportunity to practise something you enjoy and share it with people immediately. And particularly online, there’s a limited supply of people who will pay. My pitching skills are sufficiently atrocious that, if I were only to write for money outside my main job, I would probably forget how to hold a pencil within a year. I don’t want that, because I love writing and I need to do it.

Take a look at the full article here.

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Google links to HuffPo UK go to US before launch

Joseph Stashko — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:02:23 +0000

Huffington Post’s UK pages are being indexed in Google – despite the official launch not being until tomorrow.

A search on Google for ‘site:huffingtonpost.co.uk‘ reveals future content for the site, although users are currently redirected to the original US site after clicking through.

Bloggers have been publishing their first posts and although entire categories aren’t yet accessible, individual authors’ posts are directly linkable.

The masthead has also appeared in the form of the “All The Blog Posts” page – giving a clue as to what areas will be covered by the site when it launches tomorrow.

Thanks to Jonathan Frost for spotting it.

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Alastair Campbell and Kelvin MacKenzie to speak at HuffPo UK launch

Joseph Stashko — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:46:25 +0000

The Huffington Post has announced full details of tomorrow’s UK launch event, which will consist of a panel discussion moderated by Richard Bacon.

Speakers on the night include Alastair Campbell, Kelly Osbourne, Celia Walden, Kelvin MacKenzie, Shami Chakrabarti and Arianna Huffington.

The panel will debate the media’s impact on the Self-Expression Revolution.

Today Huffington Post UK told journalism.co.uk it has more than 300 bloggers signed up for the site, with more expected to sign up after launch.

UK editor-in-chief Carla Buzasi said today: “It’s a really interesting mix of people. Alastair Campbell is blogging for us on day one, and hopefully the others on the panel will be following suit shortly afterwards.”

The event is taking place at the Curzon Millbank, with the panel debate beginning at 7pm. An open invitation has been sent to the site’s bloggers-to-be to attend the launch.

Currently the url huffingtonpost.co.uk is password protected, but will be unveiled and made public this week.Similar Posts:

Exciting experiment or nothing new? Bloggers’ take on Huffington Post UK

Joseph Stashko — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:23:56 +0000

Arianna Huffington is launching the UK version of her American blog-orientated news site the Huffington Post this week, and the move has sparked debate in the blogosphere.

Huffington launched the Canada arm last month, but Huffington Post UK will be the site’s first foray outside of North America, with a French version set to follow soon.

Speaking to Ian Burrell for the Independent, Paul Bradshaw, professor of online journalism at City University comments about the difference between UK and US media landscapes that may require a different approach.

“It’s going to be hard for The Huffington Post to communicate what they stand for,” says Bradshaw, who is not inclined to blog for the site. “In the UK they are known as the site that sold to AOL. In the US they might have been known as the site that offered an alternative voice but there’s a different media landscape over here.”

In the same piece, Brian Cathcart, who teaches journalism at Kingston University, adds:

“They will need some new ideas, some really inspired appointments, and to discover some talent. It doesn’t seem that the existing model in the US would offer us anything terribly exciting and new over here.”

Paul Bradshaw may not be persuaded to write for the site but blogger and podcaster Neville Hobson is. In a post titled On board with The Huffington Post UK, Hobson writes that he relishes being part of “a grand experiment”.

So what’s in it for me? To a great extent, I see it as being part of a grand experiment, contributing my opinion and commentary on topics that interest me and that will be published in an online medium that has huge scale and reach. It offers an opportunity for such opinion and commentary to reach many people who, frankly, would be unlikely to visit my blog.

It also means that I’ll be writing for a mainstream medium. That traditionally means you need to be a journalist, which I’m not. I don’t know yet who any of the other bloggers are who’ll be writing for the UK edition, but my guess is that a majority will not be journalists.

Overseas expansion does of course mean a clutch of new hires, but Bobbie Johnson of GigaOm views the operation as “low-risk”, and points to several reasons why.

Well, first, that Huffington Post UK is looking — on the surface, at least — more like a reworking of the current AOL UK operation than a brand new entity. That’s a low-risk strategy, but as I’ve previously argued, it might take more to make an impact in a highly competitive media market like Britain.

Secondly, it’s interesting that this team consists almost exclusively of young journalists, with very few of the high-level, experienced hands that Huffington has made a great play of luring over in the United States. There’s no equivalent, for example, to the likes of political heavy-hitter Howard Fineman, brought over from Newsweek, media reporting veteran Michael Calderone from Yahoo or award-winning reporter Trymaine Lee from the New York Times.

I asked my Twitter followers what they thought of the project, and received a variety of responses.

Adam Tinworth, Editorial Business Manager for Reed Business Information pointed out the possible disruption created by the launch.

Graphic designer and student journalist Jonathan Frost was very enthusiastic.

While subeditor Paul Wiggins was rather more succinct.

Finally, if you want to get involved in blogging for the Huffington Post when it hits UK shores, food journalist Andrew Webb has helpfully published the full requirements on his blog.

For now you can follow their progress via the dedicated Twitter account @HuffPostUK, whose first tweet had a distinctly non-UK feel to it.

@HuffPostUK
HuffPost UKHappy 4th of July
Jul 04 via webFavorite RetweetReply

Image of Arianna Huffington by Knight Foundation on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Disclosure: Joseph Stashko is a blogger for Huffington Post UK.Similar Posts:

Bloggers showing ‘plenty of interest’ in writing for HuffPo UK

Sarah Marshall — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:34:24 +0000

Huffington Post launches its UK edition on 6 July with bloggers showing “plenty of interest”.

AOL, which owns the HuffPo, would not reveal the number of bloggers who have put themselves forward but said there are lots of “regular UK bloggers” who have showed an interest, plus some “big names”, which will be announced in the run up to the launch date.

It seems there is no shortage of bloggers who are prepared to write for the new UK edition – which will be part of the third most-read news site in the world – without getting paid. UK bloggers have seemingly not been deterred by a group of bloggers in the US who launched legal action against the site claiming back pay following the sale by Arianna Huffington to AOL for $315m (£195m).

The UK site, with Carla Buzasi as editor-in-chief and Chris Wimpress as political editor, will go live in less than a fortnight with an evening event to mark the site’s launch.

AOL signs new partnerships in content drive

Yahoo and AOL UK join petition to modernise UK libel law

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paidContent: Managing editor of Huffington Post Media Group leaving for Yahoo

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:27:48 +0000

Managing editor of the Huffington Post Media Group Jai Singh, is leaving for a role as Yahoo Media Network editor in chief, paidContent reports.

At Yahoo, he will be responsible for increasing original content and performance across all platforms—and for all of YMN’s leading brands, not only Yahoo News.

Brand Republic: ComScore data sees Mail Online overtake HuffPo

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:06:17 +0000

ComScore unique visitors data for March suggests news and aggregation site the Huffington Post was overtaken by MailOnline in the same month the Post was sold to AOL for $315m, Brand Republic reports today.

According to the global market researcher, MailOnline achieved a 27 per cent rise in unique visitors between February and last month, to 39,635,000, while a 20 per cent lift at the Huffington Post took it to 38,429,000.

Both titles are still behind the New York Times through which, according to the report, saw traffic rise by 41 per cent to a record 61,964,000 unique users around the world.

See the full Brand Republic report here…Similar Posts:

Huff Po bloggers take legal action for back pay

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:07:28 +0000

The Guardian today reports a group of unpaid bloggers for the Huffington Post, unhappy with the money being made from the $315 million sale of the site to AOL, have filed a $105 million lawsuit for back pay.

According to the Guardian the action is being led by Jonathan Tasini, a writer and trade unionist, quoted as complaining that “people who create content … have to be compensated” for their efforts.

Discussing the action with Journalism.co.uk’s senior reporter Rachel McAthy at #media140 today was Pat Kane, who also blogs on the Huffington Post. Speaking following his keynote speech at the event he said he was “very skeptical” about the action.

I never regarded the Huffington Post space as a commercial space.

I think what’s more interesting is the extent to which the blog community keeps an eye on the Huffington Post and sees that its leveraging its investment in the right way.

Is it becoming an even stronger platform for citizen involvement, for raising voices, for providing an alternative to the mainstream media or is it becoming absorbed by the mainstream media, are there subjects that it just won’t cover now?

So to me the question is more about monitoring them as an enabling enterprise … And the extent to which they fail or trip up on that is the extent to which you don’t participate.

One of the things about the internet is the exodus and not participating is often some of the most effective action that could possibly happen. The sense that something has lost its bloom on the internet … is a real caution to people.

But as I say if one hears stories of the editorial breadth and integrity of the operation being constrained then that’s the point at which I wouldn’t write for it.

I’d rather test it out and practice than actually go down a route that says I’m doing this because I expect a return.

You participate in these things because you want to be part of a community and you want the freedom to express and then you also want to be part of a big conversation you weren’t part of before.

The extent to which you make an earning part of your portfolio is a different question, I’m not as anxious about that.

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LA Times: Your comments, your real name

Sarah Marshall — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:42:44 +0000

How tightly moderated should online comments be? And how can news outlets cope with the huge numbers of comments? LA Times columnist James Rainey suggests people should use their real names when commenting.

It seems long past time for reputable news sites to clamp down on the gutter talk. Otherwise the open-door policy at npr.org, latimes.com and many other sites drives down the quality of the conversation and alienates the kind of thoughtful guests that make the party worth coming to in the first place.

Full post on the LA Times site at this link.Similar Posts:

Huffington Post: Exploitation claim is ‘wrong and offensive’

Paul McNally — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:35:40 +0000

The Huffington Post has defended its policy of not paying for contributors’ blog posts, after the Newspaper Guild in the US accused the site of exploiting freelance journalists.

The guild launched a campaign following the site’s sale to AOL for $315m earlier this month, calling on Huffington to share a portion of the sale proceeds with contributors, because she had built a successful media empire based on unpaid work.

In an email seen by Poynter, the Huffington Post’s head of media relations Mario Ruiz responds: “It’s both wrong and offensive to insist that HuffPost is exploiting journalists.”

Ruiz wrote: “HuffPost has 143 editors, writers, and reporters on our edit team. But we feel there’s a critical distinction between our editors and reporters and the people who contribute to our group blog.

“While we pay our editors and reporters, we don’t pay for the opinion pieces submitted by our thousands of bloggers. The vast majority of our bloggers understand the value of having a platform that reaches a very large audience.

“They can write as often as like they like or as little as they like.”Similar Posts: