Rob Kall imagines 10,000 investigative reporters being paid by the government an average of $75,000 each and spending a further $225 on 3,000 more editors. “That would cost less than a billion dollars and provide the nation with probably 50 times more investigative reports than we now have.”
Having secured $25 million of funding and launched its Chicago section in beta, the Huffington Post is reportedly eyeing further expansion with plans for San Francisco coverage.
The launch of a network of HuffPo local editions is still in the planning stage, however, the San Francisco Chronicle was told.
So it’s next stop San Fran, then – the world. The site’s international section is also in beta:
Despite securing $25 million of private equity funding and lacking some of the overheads of its traditional news cousins, HuffPo will still have to weather the advertising downturn faced by all media.
In all the election excitement, this nearly got missed but the Huffington Post went mobile this week.
Media Bistro originally reported:
“HuffPost Mobile’s election coverage includes top news stories, election results and featured blog posts. Other non-election content includes pieces from HuffPost‘s various sections like green, living, entertainment, media and style.”
It’s powered by Crisp Wireless and the two partners will now be looking to gain advertising revenue through the service, Media Bistro reports.
ComScore reports that HuffingtonPost.com had 4.5 million visitors in September, above the site’s tally of 792,000 in the same month last year. It was followed by Politico.com with 2.4 million visitors and DrudgeReport.com with 2.1 million.
Nielsen Online’s top 30 current event and global news destinations list, with percentage changes comparing September 2008 with September 2007. The Huffington Post continues to pull off big increases in unique users – visitors to the site soared 457 per cent to 7.4 million in September.
Beet.tv is carrying this interview with Rachel Sklar, editor of Huffington Post’s Eat the Press column, following a report by Gawker that she is set to leave the site to concentrate on writing a book.
In the clip below Sklar discusses the site’s approach to video and says it’s building ‘hub’ pages for books, sports and world news events.
The Chicago Tribune’s move into the social media world of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter has result in an 8 per cent rise in page views.
A beta version of the Huffington Post’s new site for Chicago has gone live.
The site is the first of a potential dozen local Huffington Post sites set for launch and will aggregate news for Chicago from local sources and posts from local bloggers.
Local information, such as crime stats, events listings and nightclub opening hours, will also feature in a ‘rotating at-a-glance’ way, said editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington in an introduction to the new site.
“Transferring The Huffington Post’s blend of news, opinion, and community – delivered with our familiar look and attitude – to a local level, HuffPost Chicago is part local news source, part resource guide, and part virtual soap box,” said Huffington.
The site will be edited by Ben Goldberger, a former reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times.
In this interview with Ariana Huffington, the HuffPost founder says mainstream media should learn ‘immediacy, transparency, and the willingness to have a strong point of view.’