I had the opportunity to be in the audience at one of Arianna Huffington's NYC talks recently. I had already read Thrive & seen her on PBS's 92Y & found that all 45 mins or so of her talk was a rehash from the PBS show. Nothing really added & it seems that it was the same timeframe as she was suffering from a terrible cold then as well. Methinks she needs to listen to herself & take some time off. You don't need any more money, prestige or power. You've done it. Now, chill.
2
Arianna Huffington and others who subscribe to her Third Metric ideology, such as Whole Foods boss John Mackey, smugly talk about redefining success for the already wildly successful. Nap rooms, meditation and breathing exercises are poor substitutes for decent pay and benefits. As the end anecdotes accurately reflects, Huffington seems to be offering a voice of reason when in reality she is making pie-in-the-sky suggestions few workers can really afford to follow if they want to keep their jobs. Sadly, Mr. Segal, who is an excellent writer, seems to have bought into Huffington's considerable charm and failed to take a more critical look at her influence. In particular, while Huffington didn't invent the idea of having writers work for free, she perfected and expanded it - and certainly helped create the Internet sensibility that journalists don't really have to be paid.
3
The goals of the HP are, by their very nature, going to produce a site lacking precisely what makes the NYT's site so valuable: depth of journalism and quality of analysis. I doubt I've looked at the HP site more than a dozen times in the last five years, and all of those were via search engine links. Invariably the content was shallow and devoid of substance.
As a former magazine editor, I consider "native advertising" — even when clearly identified as such — to be ethically challenged. It's little more than advertorials on steroids and thus of marginal value to readers. Reader trust is what bonds readers to publications, and ads that don't look like ads also don't fulfill the goal of trust.
Arianna is an intelligent woman, but her goals for the HP seem frivolous and her company's workspace a digital sweatshop. She seems self-aware, yet doesn't leverage that in positive ways. Quantity never replaces quality.
Eclectic Pragmatist — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
As a former magazine editor, I consider "native advertising" — even when clearly identified as such — to be ethically challenged. It's little more than advertorials on steroids and thus of marginal value to readers. Reader trust is what bonds readers to publications, and ads that don't look like ads also don't fulfill the goal of trust.
Arianna is an intelligent woman, but her goals for the HP seem frivolous and her company's workspace a digital sweatshop. She seems self-aware, yet doesn't leverage that in positive ways. Quantity never replaces quality.
Eclectic Pragmatist — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
3
Serendipitously, I read this article immediately after Danny Heitmzn's Op-Ed piece on Thoreau's "decluttered" ideal -- or should I say idyll? What is the Internet, if not a vast room cluttered past the point of no return? Content mills like HuffPost are the digital equivalent of Bangladesh tee-shirt factories, churning out low-quality goods at high volume, at minimal expense or respect for either the makers or the consumers. Every day I read from a wide range of news and popular culture sources online, but the only time I dip a toe into HuffPost is when a respected news outlet recommends a story. And that happens very rarely these days, as HuffPost's original content dwindles in both quantity and quality.
We need quality, not quantity, in online content. Whoever figures that out and implements it in a real (profitable) way is going to make a killing. No hammock or meditation room in the workplace is going to silence the overwhelming din of junk content. You need our clicks. We need better carrots.
It makes me livid, too, that a publicly traded company can own a business structured and run solely to satisfy the whims of its quintessentially Queen-Bee leader. All that swanning around the world is declared as a business expense, after all, as were the salaries of those employees who spent the better part of a day posing in empty desks to make Arianna feel special. HuffPost sounds more like a personality cult than a viable business.
We need quality, not quantity, in online content. Whoever figures that out and implements it in a real (profitable) way is going to make a killing. No hammock or meditation room in the workplace is going to silence the overwhelming din of junk content. You need our clicks. We need better carrots.
It makes me livid, too, that a publicly traded company can own a business structured and run solely to satisfy the whims of its quintessentially Queen-Bee leader. All that swanning around the world is declared as a business expense, after all, as were the salaries of those employees who spent the better part of a day posing in empty desks to make Arianna feel special. HuffPost sounds more like a personality cult than a viable business.
1
This story begins and ends in 'safe mode' and remains there throughout it's telling.
Avoided entirely are her financial origins - primarily through her former husband, Michael Huffington, and his patrimonial wealth.
Arianna Huffington is arguably a far more successful version of Wendy Deng with whom she shares some not-so-noble attributes...but that comparison is a tad too favorable to ex Ms. Murdoch (nee Deng). Perhaps Pamela Harriman is a more apt comparison but that is perhaps more than a tad too favorable to Arianna Huffington.
Poor old Michael Huffington was out of his depth in his marital/business relationship with Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou - and was at the time unfairly ( I thought) cast as being a rich but inconsequential dilettante in business and politics.
There's no denying AH's success through her unique set of editorial and PR skills, but let's keep the dialogue honest and the story straight with warts n'all included.
Oh, and last of all - she really ought to consult a dialogue coach to soften that accent...it's holding her back....
Tom
Avoided entirely are her financial origins - primarily through her former husband, Michael Huffington, and his patrimonial wealth.
Arianna Huffington is arguably a far more successful version of Wendy Deng with whom she shares some not-so-noble attributes...but that comparison is a tad too favorable to ex Ms. Murdoch (nee Deng). Perhaps Pamela Harriman is a more apt comparison but that is perhaps more than a tad too favorable to Arianna Huffington.
Poor old Michael Huffington was out of his depth in his marital/business relationship with Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou - and was at the time unfairly ( I thought) cast as being a rich but inconsequential dilettante in business and politics.
There's no denying AH's success through her unique set of editorial and PR skills, but let's keep the dialogue honest and the story straight with warts n'all included.
Oh, and last of all - she really ought to consult a dialogue coach to soften that accent...it's holding her back....
Tom
1
I used to read the HP. After it was linked with AOL, it became more like the National Enquirer with the most annoying navel-gazing self help sections.
I hooted when I saw her 'self' help entry 'Thrive'. What a hypocrite.
Blame for the pace? How far would she have gone without men.
I hooted when I saw her 'self' help entry 'Thrive'. What a hypocrite.
Blame for the pace? How far would she have gone without men.
2
The image of Ms. Huffington leading Huff Po staff in a breathing exercise as well as her talk about her "transformation" to focus on what's important in life after her accident are cringe-inducing. Ms. Huffington fakes enlightenment--if she was the real deal she wouldn't have a constant turnover of the young employees she hires because they are cheap. Successfully hypocritcal and a master at public relations, that's Ms. Huffington.
1
The internet news business was already in full swing before Arianna came along and ruined it. Back in 2005 you could find any number of liberal blogs such as Bartcop, the original, and The Hollywood Liberal. Then along comes super rich, former republican Arianna with her piles of money and celebrity friends that would post on her site for free. Soon all the original blogs could not compete. Look at Huffpo now, most of the stories are a mix of Yahoo, and the National Enquirer. Total Click "bait" and nothing more. Meanwhile she is laughing all the way to the bank.
1
The "why pay writers when you can get it for free?" model is killing journalism. Ms. Huffington is rich at the expense of a profession.
7
I’d finished reading the first volume of E. F. Benson’s Mapp and Lucia series just a couple of days before seeing the two-page spread of Ariana Huffington leading a roomful of employees in breathing exercises. The expression on her face immediately brought to mind the mock heroic antics of the silly Riseholme residents. Then I remembered their favorite question: “Any news?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Huffington_Post
"The Huffington Post was founded by Arianna Huffington in May 2005 and launched on May 9. It has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site each month."
To put it another way, a broad section of the American public suddenly had a genuine 'open forum' where ordinary people gathered daily to discuss real news about the behavior of governments and corporations.it was a democratic utopia - no gatekeepers, no permissions, and no per-word charges for the chance to post an opinion.
For years, many hundreds of thousands of daily readers read HuffPost's rather diffuse articles, largely for the spirited discussions that followed the articles. In the process dozens of regular commenters accumulated followings that ranged from dozens or hundreds, all the way up to a dependably insightful few who had a thousand or more regular readers.
Now a specific subset of the world's English-speaking public had an open forum to discuss governments and corporations, without needing permissions. So I presume it was the corporations which devised a way to dismantle an unregulated general discussion of their behavior among non-moneyed people. Thanks to Arianna and aol, a unique example of public discussion was diverted into a set of small closed rooms, where it could be effectively silenced.
"The Huffington Post was founded by Arianna Huffington in May 2005 and launched on May 9. It has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site each month."
To put it another way, a broad section of the American public suddenly had a genuine 'open forum' where ordinary people gathered daily to discuss real news about the behavior of governments and corporations.it was a democratic utopia - no gatekeepers, no permissions, and no per-word charges for the chance to post an opinion.
For years, many hundreds of thousands of daily readers read HuffPost's rather diffuse articles, largely for the spirited discussions that followed the articles. In the process dozens of regular commenters accumulated followings that ranged from dozens or hundreds, all the way up to a dependably insightful few who had a thousand or more regular readers.
Now a specific subset of the world's English-speaking public had an open forum to discuss governments and corporations, without needing permissions. So I presume it was the corporations which devised a way to dismantle an unregulated general discussion of their behavior among non-moneyed people. Thanks to Arianna and aol, a unique example of public discussion was diverted into a set of small closed rooms, where it could be effectively silenced.
3
Can't stand her or her on line 'copy' news. The woman is a fraud, phony, arrogant person. This articles' headline is such nonsense. korgri's posting is absolutely on target.
6
Personally whenever I am referred to this website my first thought is "oh Huffington Post is supposed to be good" but every time I find the conglomeration of material and advertising so messy and overwhelming, the subject that brought me there covered superficially with snarky agenda, that it feels like a real dumpster dive. And I am not into that.
3
GMAB! Couldn't hold Matt Drudge's coat. On a sunny day! Just another knock-off artist. Carrying water for Obama, Clinton and lately the movie stars.
1
goodbye to arianna
our democracy is difficult
harsh comments everyday
community is complicated
never getting your own way
consumer conformity comforting
facebook identity bought and sold
so join the joiners to be successful
be capitalist corporation controlled
some handle our democracy well
roll w/ the punches go w/ the flow
ones you’d never find on facebook
woody guthrie henry david thoreau
but the right wing turns for fascism
and lefties beat the stalinist drum
control freaks are all the same
democracy they want none
our democracy is difficult
harsh comments everyday
community is complicated
never getting your own way
consumer conformity comforting
facebook identity bought and sold
so join the joiners to be successful
be capitalist corporation controlled
some handle our democracy well
roll w/ the punches go w/ the flow
ones you’d never find on facebook
woody guthrie henry david thoreau
but the right wing turns for fascism
and lefties beat the stalinist drum
control freaks are all the same
democracy they want none
2
I'll bet it comes out one day that her whole scheme was to mock liberals. She'll have a medical event, someone will find her diaries. "The hardest thing I found" she'll have written, "is to keep a straight face in front of everyone."
2
I no longer read the Huffington Post.
When I'm looking for online news I also want the reporter to have done their own investigative research.
I can appreciate commentary, however it is the truth most readers are looking for, and that requires more work than you find online with the Huffington Post.
Huffington Post could also be known as Corporate Post. You can connect through Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Yahoo. The online commentary is restricted to individuals connected with those entities. I would wonder if those companies pay Huffpost to include them, and only those companies.
Meg Conway
When I'm looking for online news I also want the reporter to have done their own investigative research.
I can appreciate commentary, however it is the truth most readers are looking for, and that requires more work than you find online with the Huffington Post.
Huffington Post could also be known as Corporate Post. You can connect through Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Yahoo. The online commentary is restricted to individuals connected with those entities. I would wonder if those companies pay Huffpost to include them, and only those companies.
Meg Conway
6
Whilst this piece was hardly a love-letter, it could have been considerably more incisive and rigorous. The NYT's adherence to what it considers journalistic balance (aka, not upsetting anyone who is powerful, regardless of how unethical their behavior might be) typically makes for a very anodyne product, and this will be water off the thick-skinned AH's back. As many other commentators have noted, HP's employment practices and treatment of freelances are appalling, and her avowal of the advances of unplugging and sleeping whilst forcing her staff to work excessively long hours and making her living from a content-poor, advertising-driven website, is grotesquely hypocritical; the piece could have been much more trenchant. For a much older but still relevant webposting, see: http://shameproject.com/profile/arianna-huffington/ See also the old but penetrating and fascinating piece in NY Magazine: http://nymag.com/news/media/arianna-huffington-2011-11/
5
Fantastic links. Tks! I had not read these.
If I were a young person just starting out in my career I might be tempted to try and get a job at the Huffington Post and work there for maybe a year or two just to have it on my resume.
However, given the brutal and unrelenting pace described in this article I would NEVER consider working there for longer than I had to. Human beings can only work so much before they need to rest and recharge or their bodies quit on them. It seems as thought Arriana Huffington fails to understand that.
Life is too short to have to feel like you need to be engaged in your job around the clock. I am 62 years old and have been retired for four years. I am glad that I don't have to work in the modern digital corporate world where your job demands everything from you and work/life balance doesn't even remotely exist. Heaven forbid that if you have young children at home that you might want to spend some quality time with them.
However, given the brutal and unrelenting pace described in this article I would NEVER consider working there for longer than I had to. Human beings can only work so much before they need to rest and recharge or their bodies quit on them. It seems as thought Arriana Huffington fails to understand that.
Life is too short to have to feel like you need to be engaged in your job around the clock. I am 62 years old and have been retired for four years. I am glad that I don't have to work in the modern digital corporate world where your job demands everything from you and work/life balance doesn't even remotely exist. Heaven forbid that if you have young children at home that you might want to spend some quality time with them.
11
Yeah.
This kind of thing weirds me out, although I don't know why I say that - its not like I haven't seen this all my life.
Type "A" individuals, insanely driven, demanding the same pace, more, more, ever more, from their workers.
Huffington is a kind of freak - but she's the kind of freak that plays well in corporate America, and its unrelenting pace towards ever greater illusions of achievement and perfection.
This kind of thing weirds me out, although I don't know why I say that - its not like I haven't seen this all my life.
Type "A" individuals, insanely driven, demanding the same pace, more, more, ever more, from their workers.
Huffington is a kind of freak - but she's the kind of freak that plays well in corporate America, and its unrelenting pace towards ever greater illusions of achievement and perfection.
5
I really like the insight in your phrase "illusions of achievement and perfection".
1
I enjoyed, and actually read 'the Huffington Post'... ever since she or it branched out, phooey ..... trash talk and advertising
2
I like to procrastinate by reading a lot of dumb silly stuff on the internet. But I cannot tolerate FluffPo.
4
No mention of "The Drudge Report"? That seems odd since Huffpo was founded as a liberal response to Drudge. Shoddy reporting at its best.
1
The problem with HP is that it stuffs itself with so much content without much attention to the quality of that content. It started out very interesting, but I can't remember the last time I visited. It's like trying to find dinner in a garbage dump.
9
More like edible food in a garbage dump.
Notoriously misleading and inaccurate headlines, embarrassingly sleazy and mindless stories adjacent to real news aggregated from actual journalists. Business model based on clickbait harvesting. Brilliant.
9
How anyone can put forward a claim that Arianna Huffington has done more than anyone for the Internet content. Common lat's get serious. She isn't event that bright. I've seen her in many panels always as a follower, attempting to show leadership. She is a good politician, that married to the right person way back in CA.
She doesn't pay writers for their content, pays her staff very little and constantly creates drama and discord among them. There is always something wrong, and it's always always Arianna. And indeed, the HuffPost is not a reliable source for any kind of reporting. It's just a vehicle to make her money and give her celebrity friends a little more fame, because they (and she) apparently need more. It's a joke.
6
Used to read HP routinely in 2008 for politics coverage until they demanded Facebook info to be able to comment -- meaning they could know all about your life. From what I see of it now on AOL when I occasionally look at one of their highlighted stories, it is full of vile, racist, vicious hate comments. The things said about Mrs. Obama and her young daughters, for example, are pure filth. There is no story that does not draw hateful, vicious comments -- even Kate Middleton is attacked. The site seems to draw readers/commentors who are angry and vengeful. I am stunned at the language and vicious sentiments that are posted on an allegedly moderated site. If they do moderate, they are failing or else they just don't care what is posted as long as it is tweeted or pinned or liked to extend the reach and headcount of HP. 90% of what I see would never be accepted on NY Times. Disgusting that now Verizon is part of this hate and filth-spewing machine
4
"She did more than anyone else to invent the Internet news business."--- you are absolutely correct... She keep INVENTING THE NEWS.
There was a time when I used to read the Huffington Post, but that was what seems many years ago. I viewed it as an informative liberal news source, even if much of its content was merely rehashed from the NY Times et al. I rarely visit it now, I actually avoid it. I find it to be cluttered with gossip and lifestyle content, which I suppose draws an audience. But I don't need to know 99% of what Huffpost presents on their front page. Of course, the same could be said for many news & lifestlyle websites, it's just to much info. that I don't need. Only so much time in the day, and I just wasted five minutes on this. It goes fast.
4
Advertisers like targeted scale advertising platforms. The Huffington Post attracts readers, but so do many other venues. All of them are, or will, be rolled up in a web of digital ad delivery platforms.
Verizon so far has decided to keep the Huffington Post, but the real value of the AOL purchase was a big step into the advertising platforms of the future, and the increasing share of activity on mobile devices.
In the end, the Huffington Post will live and die on its ability to profitably get a share of the bigger advertising pie. AOL, among others, will certainly merchandize HuffPo's viewer traffic. But there's a reckoning to come as the quality writers start to realize that popularity alone doesn't pay their student loan bills.
Verizon so far has decided to keep the Huffington Post, but the real value of the AOL purchase was a big step into the advertising platforms of the future, and the increasing share of activity on mobile devices.
In the end, the Huffington Post will live and die on its ability to profitably get a share of the bigger advertising pie. AOL, among others, will certainly merchandize HuffPo's viewer traffic. But there's a reckoning to come as the quality writers start to realize that popularity alone doesn't pay their student loan bills.
The Huffington Post is consistently full of vile left wing propaganda. Arianna is a major purveyor of liberal bias and slanted cheer leading. She has corrupted journalism and constantly confuses uninformed opinion for news.
One can only imagine how empty the inner life of these aspiring young women in the piece may be; we might reccomend Jean Betke Elshtain's "Who We Are." As for the rise of Ms Huffington, the phenomenon of celebrity thrumps everything.
1
Come on, Huffpost is an online integrator, not a journalism company. Their business model is 'to roundup journalism from other publications', using the crack-spread that Google gave them to 'legally' rephrase the content from bricks and mortar news publications. She's a serial PLAGIARIST. Anyone with even the slightest familiarity with HP also knows they are a SELECTIVE plagiarist and they comment censure dissent, aiming to push the neoliberal globalist agenda by making pop stars of public servants who should be getting back to work, plus a sprinkling of NYPost sensationalist jibberjabber and the occasional Cosmopolitanesque use of borderline porn click-bait.
3
Good observation. I would call Huff PO a NEWS AGGREGATOR. She's built a business on basically ripping off other news sources.
Cheesy.
Cheesy.
2
I stopped reading HuffPo after Kardashian headlines began to appear daily. This is not journalism by any stretch of the imagination.
3
CNN was a brilliant idea and for a time provided a product that deserved attention for its content. However, it has turned into a race to the bottom for CNN and its competitors. Living in Alabama I could rely on newspapers like the Huntsville Times, the Birmingham Post-Herald, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution for news. No longer. I would have preferred the NY Times but delivery was difficult. News aggregation is news aggravation to me. I rarely read anything the Times shows from news services. I realize the news industry is about selling advertising but I only buy the NY Times online services and appreciate it for its content and style of delivery. It is still relatively uncluttered and a wide range of viewpoints are expressed. My preference is to use a desktop computer with a large screen. Gigabit fiber optic service makes it a good experience. The Huffington Post can grab my attention but only briefly. It has the feel of just what the writer describes here. Slapped together always looking for a hook. Everytime I give in and peek I see grotesque images I used to see only at the grocery store checkout on the cover of the cheesy tabloids. Give me the Times and Wikipedia to start from. I'll do my own aggregation thank you. Roger Ailes and Arianna Huffington might be successful but I avoid Apple products because that company effectively dictates how I use their devices. I don't use them. After 25 years with Microsoft Windows schemes I am finally a fan.
1
Once described as the most upwardly mobile Greek since Icarus.
2
I don't understand the Huffington Post. Hardly anything I read ever links to it. So I don't know who is reading it. In fact I am browsing the internet practically 24-7 and never run into a Huffington Post story. I usually start with three or four main feeds, the NYT being one. Someone how I'm not connected to the social feed of the Huffington Post media empire. Makes me a Republican, I guess.
I hope huffPost Live will survive and prosper. Its content and platform are the best on the Internet. I say that as one of their most avid viewers and commenters.
1
I have never understood the Ariana Huffington phenomenon. How did her opinion come to be valued...? To me, she's one of those odd celebrities who became a celebrity for reasons I don't entirely get.
I know she first made her name by writing a book attacking feminists and Germaine Greer in particular (focusing her anger on "The Female Eunuch" -- I thought Greer might not be right about everything, but in this book, she illuminated some very real issues in an intelligent way).
I know she supported Newt and generally backed the Republican Revolution. She's moved away from that, but I wonder if it's in the name of fame and expediency rather than principle.
I know she plagiarized the work of not one but two people, one of which did not file suit but was an art history professor at UVA and quietly claimed that Huffington stole "20 years" of her research.
And I know that her presence in the limelight initially came about because of her romantic relationships.
Not sure I want to pay attention.
I know she first made her name by writing a book attacking feminists and Germaine Greer in particular (focusing her anger on "The Female Eunuch" -- I thought Greer might not be right about everything, but in this book, she illuminated some very real issues in an intelligent way).
I know she supported Newt and generally backed the Republican Revolution. She's moved away from that, but I wonder if it's in the name of fame and expediency rather than principle.
I know she plagiarized the work of not one but two people, one of which did not file suit but was an art history professor at UVA and quietly claimed that Huffington stole "20 years" of her research.
And I know that her presence in the limelight initially came about because of her romantic relationships.
Not sure I want to pay attention.
1
No feminist 'hires' dozens of educated young women to work for free. A multimillionaire operating the modern day equivalent of a sweat-shop. People like Huffington killed the profession of journalism. Our great loss, her enormous gain.
20
She's selling "empowerment" - junk psychology like "turn off your cellphone for the weekend and do yoga" - to wealthy women with too much time and money on their hands. A recent event reportedly featured Huffington and Mika Brzezinski lounging in their jammies in a bed onstage, instructing rich women how to 'unplug and relax.' - at a cost of $1000 a ticket.
She created her empire with hundreds of millions she got in a divorce settlement from her gay husband. She certainly took that money and ran with it, so more power to her, I guess. But she's hardly 'self-made,' anymore than Jeb Bush is 'self-made.'
What pains me about these 'empowerment' events is they're marketed as representing a 'feminist' lifestyle and viewpoint. I think this has more in common with P.T. Barnum than Gloria Steinem.
She created her empire with hundreds of millions she got in a divorce settlement from her gay husband. She certainly took that money and ran with it, so more power to her, I guess. But she's hardly 'self-made,' anymore than Jeb Bush is 'self-made.'
What pains me about these 'empowerment' events is they're marketed as representing a 'feminist' lifestyle and viewpoint. I think this has more in common with P.T. Barnum than Gloria Steinem.
2
Great post. The NYT piece is way too soft.
Much of the Huffington Post is silly and mindless, but much is entertaining, insightful and informative. Like anything else, one has to be selective when shopping there, but I always enjoy the trip.
1
She has a strong rolodex, beyond that she is joke.
2
I don't read the Huffington Post. I browse the net instead and go to the sources of the stories she filches.
Why would I support an Arianna Huffington, a rich woman, living off the work of people whom she does not pay enough to eat properly?
Not the kind of buzz I need. Not the kind of world I want.
Why would I support an Arianna Huffington, a rich woman, living off the work of people whom she does not pay enough to eat properly?
Not the kind of buzz I need. Not the kind of world I want.
12
Mark's ex.
I like Arianna's spunk, and she's got lots of it.
I used to read Huffington post but was always curious and baffled as to why people called it a "great digital paper". It was not great, and at times it got tedious and confusing (with all the ads that went on and on).
Then few years after it started, after Arianna got her money and more, it went really really fluff and duff. I stopped reading though I was pestered to comment.
The paper gave nothing of substance.
Arianna is the Madonna of the 2000. Shrewd businesswoman without any talent or sense for content. But she knows how to sell and market.
In stead of running a newspaper she should run a business school and teach people how to make money during hard times.
Of course that must involve "exploitation, which includes lot of interning without pay for decades" while flattering and flattering the boss.
Having said all that I do like Arianna's spunk, and she's got lots of it.
I like Arianna's spunk, and she's got lots of it.
I used to read Huffington post but was always curious and baffled as to why people called it a "great digital paper". It was not great, and at times it got tedious and confusing (with all the ads that went on and on).
Then few years after it started, after Arianna got her money and more, it went really really fluff and duff. I stopped reading though I was pestered to comment.
The paper gave nothing of substance.
Arianna is the Madonna of the 2000. Shrewd businesswoman without any talent or sense for content. But she knows how to sell and market.
In stead of running a newspaper she should run a business school and teach people how to make money during hard times.
Of course that must involve "exploitation, which includes lot of interning without pay for decades" while flattering and flattering the boss.
Having said all that I do like Arianna's spunk, and she's got lots of it.
1
I rarely read HP stories. To many 5 dollar headlines with 10 cents worth of content. Everything about AOL is trash and hubris. That is when HP day after day we see trash after trash destroying HP credibility. I look at breaking headlines, and search other sources to actually read content. HP lost me when she required facebook for sign ins to make comments, ignoring millions of people who will never use facebook. There are so many things wrong with HP, it is impossible to describe them. The only value I see is "headline scanning" to see what might be trending, ignoring the content. Never watched HP live because it is useless. Don't enjoy watching minimum wage slaves posturing before a cheap camera. Never ever click the ads, ever. I like Ms. Huffington though. She is quite the phenom, a courageous and relentless person. In the beginning HP was pretty awesome, these days it is showing the corruption, shallowness and disgusting values of AOL. I truly loathe AOL...and Verizon is worse..a money-caching machine; there are no actual human beings in there anywhere, just ugly bags of mostly water. Everything that is out of balance with America is condensed and made clear at HP...the perfect mirror of a country and a culture that has lost its way, that is obsessed with obsession, that praises the emptiness of corporation values above all else, becoming in the end what Ariana Huffington was probably trying to fight against when she started her project, and that is the tragedy here.
David Segal's feature was balanced, well written and informative. There are a lot of forces at play here: personalities, work culture, the weakening walls between editorial content and ad sales, and the falling salaries of those who write for the Web or Blog. Thanks for shedding some light on a powerful personality and the grueling schedule that is required to meet the ephemeral needs of an ever changing Internet appetite. I also liked the magazine format of the article. Thanks.
She should be running Greece and in charge of all negotiations with Greece's creditors. It would be nice if she were really doing that because the world would benefit, whereas any benefit to the world from the Huffington Post is quite debatable.
2
I would never trust Ms. Huff to negotiate for Greece. She is only interested in one thing: her brand. In that, she reminds me of Donald Trump.
1
Huffington did not do more than anyone to invent the digital news business. Salon and Slate did a much better job with smarter content they've always paid their writers for. She did more than anyone to devalue the work of writers. Huffington and her bank account are the only ones thriving. You should stop writing press releases like this so she can earn more money off the young people she exploits.
3
She sounds like a troubled person who cannot be still. Why are you running so, Arianna?
3
The Huffington Post is a joke—sort of a New Age National Enquirer. Which makes Ariana Huffington a joke, too. Whoever she is "setting the pace" for, I don't want to know them.
13
Its embarrassing to read.
16
She's the digital version of the blood-sucking leech who has fattened her coffers with the sweat, toil, tears and intellect of other people -- the legion of contributors who sell their labor for "exposure," and she gets all the publicity.
19
"She did more than anyone else to invent the Internet news business." Seriously? Ever heard of Matt Drudge? He came first.
7
Yes, but you are the only person who reads it. No one in the real world who actually has a life reads the drudge report.
1
the worse website on the net. slow, ad ridden, only fit for viewing the little spinning wheels that never stop.
10
I am waiting for the Island Billionaire survival show. Combination Hannibal Lecter meets Cocoon.
Cast:
Donald Trump - as himself
Ariana Huffington - as herself
Tony Robbins - as a schizophrenic Neanderthal who believes he's Paganini trapped inside Andrew Carnegie's body.
Martha Stewart - as herself
No food, no water, no tools but forks and knives. Last man woman surviving eats all.
Cast:
Donald Trump - as himself
Ariana Huffington - as herself
Tony Robbins - as a schizophrenic Neanderthal who believes he's Paganini trapped inside Andrew Carnegie's body.
Martha Stewart - as herself
No food, no water, no tools but forks and knives. Last man woman surviving eats all.
19
My money is on Martha - she's been there.
8
Can we add Adelson, that Las Vegas billionaie and David Koch?
Breathing classes? How do you pay rent with breathing classes? The Huffington Post makes abundantly clear what's wrong with today's journalism. Ms. Huffington charges $100,000 for a pointless speech but all the contributors get paid with "exposure."
28
I just want to see a profile of a male executive that describes his "purring" accent, his being, say, a "Loro Piana'd man of a certain age", and describes him tucking his hair back.
Most media executives are notoriously difficult. If this were written about a man the tone would be so entirely different.
Most media executives are notoriously difficult. If this were written about a man the tone would be so entirely different.
21
It's exhausting just reading about Huffington. I can't imagine how painful it would be to be working for her. And living with her...? Yikes! (And she has offspring. Must be akin to a "Mommy dearest" experience.) And then there are her 'values': Success = Money & Power. Wow! Just stop there for answers from Arianna, since we now have her magic formula to "Man's Search For Meaning".
7
She learned well from John Rodger. Her cult of followers is a higher paradigm of never ending flatterers and lackeys that are highly educated and willing to work to the bone for string cheese.
I am so impressed by her I cannot find the words. Look at how Carlos Casteneda or Charles Manson and how they created loyalty. It seems she has shown them to be pikers. While most cults have a core of loyal followers, she has bettered that by creating a revolving door of followers.
And they never figure out they were used. Brilliant. What a brilliant user.
I am so impressed by her I cannot find the words. Look at how Carlos Casteneda or Charles Manson and how they created loyalty. It seems she has shown them to be pikers. While most cults have a core of loyal followers, she has bettered that by creating a revolving door of followers.
And they never figure out they were used. Brilliant. What a brilliant user.
8
HuffPo is what one would call "timepass" in India. Just a lot of fluff and feel-good nonsense for fluffy people.
8
After wasting time reading HuffPost for years---although I never sank to the level of posting comments--I blocked the site permanently at the beginning of this year and I couldn't be happier about that. I'm certainly not one whit less well-informed, since HuffPost is to information as a McDonald's cheeseburger is to good nutrition, let alone fine dining. I recommend this to everyone who reads these words.
In the end the most amazing part of the Arianna story is how at every step of her career, going back to before the Internet, she has leveraged other people's money, ideas, work product, and even their health and wellbeing, to her own greater glory and personal enrichment, while presenting herself as a combination of Anna Wintour, Martha Stewart, and the Dalai Lama.
In the end the most amazing part of the Arianna story is how at every step of her career, going back to before the Internet, she has leveraged other people's money, ideas, work product, and even their health and wellbeing, to her own greater glory and personal enrichment, while presenting herself as a combination of Anna Wintour, Martha Stewart, and the Dalai Lama.
22
Actually she has a lot in common with Anna Wintour and Martha Stewart, namely achieving success and self aggrandizement at any cost. If you have to treat the people who work for you like indentured servants to achieve your goals then so be it.
only issue is drudge had more to do with getting internet news on the map than she did
2
Novel idea, indeed, to think presenting stories/articles about humans achieving, doing good in the world. Its only novel in the American fear-bating, misery promoting, negative berating US media. Sadly the younger generation Millenniums and younger are hooked, line and sinker as addicted to gloom and doom mass media as the Baby Boomers. Despite my fellow American insatiable hunger for bad news, much of the world is doing great things as we American slip farther down the pit of unwarranted paranoia. The Huffngton Report has not been as bad as most, but to step up and say they are novel with the thought of presenting positive news exemplifies my fellow Americans are living in a bubble of ignorance. Other parts of the world not taken over by Western mass media actually report objective and educational news. Huffington has done well maximizing capitalism so the few get more than their fair share. Ching, Ching as Arianna deposits into her bank account.
2
Nobody knows how to take advantage of an opportunity like Ariana Huffington. She got her first start by marrying a conservative Republican politician (who later became gay.) When Bush Hate was at its height, she pivoted her politics and made a fortune by flattering leftist bloggers to work for free. When AOL bought HuffPo for $315 million, the born-again leftist fought a lawsuit to use any of that money to pay the people who had made her rich.
String cheese and nap rooms aside, Zsa Zsa is a hypocrite of breathless proportions.
String cheese and nap rooms aside, Zsa Zsa is a hypocrite of breathless proportions.
17
Her husband did not "become" gay. He was a closeted bisexual. He and his wife, Arianna hid it. The reason: he was running for Senate. When he lost, Michael Huffington said how relieved he was because he could finally come out of the closet. He also said Arianna knew all about his bisexuality, even though she denied this during and after their marraige. Arianna is a hypocrite.
Don't think much of Arianna Huffington, or her product. Who reads that tripe anyway??
5
Yep, HuffPo is an aggregator - for Arianna Huffington's bank accounts. Stolen product from other news sources, throw in a little tabloid, mix with a bit of faux feminism and Cosmo, sprinkle with (unpaid) celebrity mewlings about "the day I learned my husband, Tom Hanks, is a secret misogynist". Hate the FB sign in to comment. Journalism has sunk to a new low with HuffPo.
31
"like"'d your post for irony. Completely on point, by the way. Huffington Post is the reason I pay for a NYT subscription
7
She aggregated her tacky best-seller book: "Maria Callas, The Woman Behind the Legend" in much the same manner by forklifting whole sections from the scholarly and elegant "The Art of Maria Callas" by John Ardoin and Gerald Fitzgerald. The latter pair were irate and ready for litigation but somehow Madame Stassinapoulos (later hyphenated with Huffington, then dropped) was able to win them over with her wily ways: whether that involved a settlement is something that was never disclosed. But she is the Regina Giddens of digital media, straight up!
6
Why is a FB account needed? What purpose does it serve? I learned that the NYT required a FB account to comment but later removed the requirement. Thank you. Not everyone has a FB account, ya know?
It's an aggregator. It takes the work of others. The only thing it generates on its own are the poorly written headlines. This is `children playing news' at its worst.
18
Sounds like a Lower East Side sweatshop.
18
Yeah, circa 1905.
Arianna Huffington is an Ayn Rand for our time.
8
She leeches off the work of others and uses it to pander to the masses based on whatever they think will be popular, rather than any judgment of quality. That's the exact opposite of what Ayn Rand would do. If Arianna were a character in The Fountainhead, she would be Ellsworth Toohey.
1
They had the greatest native comments section on the internet. I had some of my best discussions/arguments there.
Then they said new members would need FB accounts but old members were GF'd. Then, six months later and without warning they threw the switch and everyone needed a FB account.
I complained. They would have none of it.
Then they eliminated completely their native comments section in favor of social media.
Then they asked me if I wanted to be an unpaid blogger.
Heck, at least there my comments appeared. Unlike some other sites we know of.
Then they said new members would need FB accounts but old members were GF'd. Then, six months later and without warning they threw the switch and everyone needed a FB account.
I complained. They would have none of it.
Then they eliminated completely their native comments section in favor of social media.
Then they asked me if I wanted to be an unpaid blogger.
Heck, at least there my comments appeared. Unlike some other sites we know of.
3
Half their readership left when the FB move happened. How dumb was that?
4
When I got my first computer in 2005 the first thing I did was go to the Huffington Post. I read the Huffington Post everyday for years. I stopped I won't read the Huff Post anymore. I didn't know she was so terrible to her young employees. Before mandatory facebook login there was community moderators any community moderator could delete any comment he didn't like. I thought liberals were tolerant & inclusive, liberal websites aren't.
8
Liberals are tolerant of and inclusive to anyone accepting of their ideology. If you don't say what they want to hear, you are rejected.
I've never understood the popularity of Ms. Huffington or her website. Whole lot of noise, very little useful.
14
It wouldn't have surprised me if the anecdote at the end of the story - about the young woman who ask "How do we detox when we're told we have to be in the social-media revolution in order to earn our living?" - had ended with the young woman saying "But I already work for you, Arianna!"
9
I used to love writing comments on the Huffington Post, which I did from the start. Then Arianna required commenters to sign in through Facebook, which I would never use. Though she had promised that already - registered commenters could avoid Facebook, my comments were forever blocked. I have rarely read Huffpost.com since then. She has lowered the tone and education level thereby; my comments were always thoughtful and educational.
9
Arianna Huffington is interested in one thing only: her bank balance.
All the rest is just hogwash. She's conservative, then she's liberal. She married a bi-sexual, except somehow she didn't know that about him - but she sure DID know he was rich. She is lionized as "brilliant" and "enlightened," even though her treatment of employees would be right at home in North Korea - she drains people and discards them when they're not of any further use to her bottom line.
Huffington is out for herself and herself alone, and she will steamroll anyone who she perceives as hindering her. End of story!
All the rest is just hogwash. She's conservative, then she's liberal. She married a bi-sexual, except somehow she didn't know that about him - but she sure DID know he was rich. She is lionized as "brilliant" and "enlightened," even though her treatment of employees would be right at home in North Korea - she drains people and discards them when they're not of any further use to her bottom line.
Huffington is out for herself and herself alone, and she will steamroll anyone who she perceives as hindering her. End of story!
34
Huffington Post held such promise when it was first introduced a little over 10 years ago. It was staffed with professional journalists who offered a slightly more nuanced view of the news than the traditional media outlets. There were even some investigative pieces that took the reader behind the scenes to get a fuller picture of what the news really means. Opinion pieces were written by professional journalists . After Arianna sold out to AOL the quality of the journalism sank like a sack of rocks thrown into a shallow pond. It is now filled with what are essentially blog posts by political hacks and wannabees. It's just a left wing version of The Drudge Report.
Arianna got her big pay day (good for her) but abandoned the brand. Salacious and misleading headlines are the order of the day now at Huffington Post. Poorly sourced and specious articles are commonplace. The quality of the comments section is no better than Yahoo News. And all the intrusive sign in through Facebook nonsense turned me off completely. Ah what could have been...
Arianna got her big pay day (good for her) but abandoned the brand. Salacious and misleading headlines are the order of the day now at Huffington Post. Poorly sourced and specious articles are commonplace. The quality of the comments section is no better than Yahoo News. And all the intrusive sign in through Facebook nonsense turned me off completely. Ah what could have been...
33
I dumped the HP when they started to require signing in via facebook.
26
I read it only because of the many language editions. I have the opportunity to practice different languages via the same topics. Otherwise, it is a poor excuse for journalism. It is all biased editorials masquerading as news. As a gay man I cringe at 90% of the stories in the Gay section. Where do they find these people who are on the staff or write columns? The racism flows daily. The quality of writing is sub-par.
Why do you need a Facebook account to sign in? Hmmm....
Why do you need a Facebook account to sign in? Hmmm....
12
When Huffington Post gets unionized, I will take their progressive outlook seriously.
34
The first few times I looked at the HuffPo website, I thought it must be aimed at 14 year-old boys - most of the articles were soft porn about sideboob, nipple slips, underwear, or introductory gynecology. Further reading gradually revealed that it is a sensationalist tabloid aimed at inculcating undereducated, celebrity-obsessed women with left-leaning shock stories about racism, gender-bending and guns. Further reading ceased.
13
Exactly! The stories did not require switching on the brain to read.
I spent a lot of time on HuffPo from about 2000 when Bush was "elected." It was a nice place to hang out and complain along with other liberals. I left when they made it mandatory to sign in using Facebook. At first the old-timers were going to get to keep their (well-known by the community) HuffPo handles, but then that offer was taken off the table. I refuse to visit it now. And it's getting gargantuan. I prefer cozier sites.
8
For some reason, I first clicked to the comment section of this article. I’m glad I did. I learned a great deal about HuffPo and her slavery style of management. I’m even happier that I’ve never read the Huffington Post - and now I never plan to! Thanks, NYT commenters! You’re the best!
13
It's not a "content machine." It's an "other people's content" machine. That's one problem. Another is its insidious "native advertising." And another is its reliance on free and underpaid labor. So bad for the country and the culture, on so many levels. She can make all the money in the world, but it won't change what will ultimately be her shameful legacy.
18
Some of us who wrote for the Huff Post were dropped after being associated with a writer who had complained about not being paid, even though we never sought payment We have been allowed to return but our stories are never used. The message from the blog team that our post has been received has become one of the world's great lies.
13
Love the Getty Images shot by Gillian Laub that NYT editors chose to frame the piece. E.g., she's got her employees in a trance.
1
Wow what a long article!—Great pub for her! . . .
1
Hoards of ulcer-developing journalists, producing no quality content, for no pay, for a company that makes no profit; so this woman can earn another million. She's got the American dream all figured out.
17
If I want to read the news, I'll read The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. There is really no reason to read anything else, and certainly not the Huff Post.
15
Is this Viacom product placement? Seriously NYT? How many of your reporters would work for nothing to get a byline?
30
Ms. Huffington sounds like a ruthless, self-centered, pathologically driven tyrant wrapped in a thin layer of, gauzy, woman-friendly, make-pretend spin that only her hoards of mindless "you-go-girl," fans would buy.
Very Hillary'esque.
Very Hillary'esque.
28
For such a liberal, she doesn't even offer health care to her perma-lance workers. Shameful.
85
If you want to know what is seriously wrong with America today, you can find it in these few sentences from this article:
"Many were recent graduates of Yale — her feeder of choice — whose chief qualification, aside from the obvious, was a willingness to work for a pittance. But the hiring spree was rushed and filled the sites with fledglings. Page views plunged, irking corporate sponsors."
Yale graduates willing to work for a pittance... How much did their education cost at one of America's best schools? Then they get out and get paid next to nothing to make a hash of digital content for the Huffington Post. Whew. But, every time I am certain I've found out the worst effects the Silicon Valley technology disease is causing, I read something like this: "But native advertising, designed to match the look and feel of the editorial content it runs alongside, has been on the rise for years."
Native content is the death of honest journalism. Such insidious garbage makes what Brian Williams did look like an act of journalistic integrity, which it was not. What hath Silicon Valley wrought? When will America wake up from this techno-nightmare? America has become 'The Walking Dead', and all the zombies have iPhones. They consume piles of dead content rather than human flesh. "Must look at my phone...must look at my phone...must look at my phone.."
104
"America has become 'The Walking Dead', and all the zombies have iPhones. They consume piles of dead content rather than human flesh. "Must look at my phone...must look at my phone...must look at my phone..""
And here I thought they were just playing Minecraft.
And here I thought they were just playing Minecraft.
3
NYT practices native advertising and it's various forms; capitalism.
1
Thinking back to the years 2004 and 2005, I recall 4 things that got started in those years: Facebook, the Huffington Post, YouTube, and the Colbert Report. All were great for awhile, but FB and HP have turned into disappointments driven by profits and click-bait. Zuckerberg and Huffington are quite similar. When the comments section of HP got taken over by Facebook, that was a sign of things to come.
YouTube is still great, and Colbert is brilliant beyond words but I hope he doesn't abandon his buffoonish, conservative alter ego entirely when he takes Letterman's seat on staid, conventional network TV in September.
YouTube is still great, and Colbert is brilliant beyond words but I hope he doesn't abandon his buffoonish, conservative alter ego entirely when he takes Letterman's seat on staid, conventional network TV in September.
9
This woman is the worst of the worst of the one-percent…. but she has excellent PR, doesn't she?
49
Post-college, no journalist should write only for the glory of a by-line. What Arianna Huffington has done to journalism by relying on unpaid contributors is unforgivable.
57
It's a great business model: aggregate second-hand content and pay nothing for original articles.
60
Oh yes, the Huffington Post invented "sideboob" clickbait and all the other demeaning clickbait stories that they run about women. I laugh when Huffington goes on an on about the "power of women" and then resorts to these same tired, insulting methods of driving up page views.
56
national enquirer reborn is what Huff Post is these days. i look at it for breaking news but headlines such as ...Why This Woman Lets Her Armpit Hair Grow Freely.... Genius Trick For Washing Your Bra...Lady Gaga, What Are You Wearing???..Women Were Asked To Draw Their Perfect Penis....12 Crazy Amazing Facts About The Clitoris.. are just a sampling of what they consider news.
24
I'm afraid the Huff Post is little more than social media click bait. Really feeble journalism, if you could call it that.
14
This woman, independently wealthy through marriage, did more than any other single person to legitimize the idea that writers should work for free.
79
Ariana and Brian Williams! News sources have lost their credibility. This fulfills biblical prophesy about, "wars and rumors of war". The only thing journalists get factual is, "boxers or briefs".
5
Yeah, but NYT has a better comments section. I'm serious; NYT has the best WORLDWIDE comments on the internet. And thanks to what I assume is some policing; no off topics, insults, or personal battles allowed. Now if you could just punch in your name to find your comment.....
61
Very true! I often learn more from educated responses than I learn from the article itself.
10
The sorting system is also superior, avoiding the trap of most comment boards where everyone bandwagons onto an early comment that picked up some likes and pushes 99% of the other viewpoints to the bottom of the thread.
Click the little box in the bottom left corner under the comment part. It enables the NYT to email you when your comment is published.
1
Imagine how great she would be if her business actually made a profit.
5
Seeing a link to a Huff-Post article when I read the news on the internet is like passing by a sign for McDonald's on the highway: won't eat there, won't click there.
43
I have lost all respect of Arianna because of the HuffPo. My word it is terrible. This is true, the other day, there was a link on the HuffPo to "shocking photographs" which included a variety of photographs of various sorts such as animals attacking other animals. Among them were photographs of Holocaust victims being murdered and standing in line waiting to be murdered. Thanks HufffPo! Great of you to provide links on your webiste to photographs of naked woman holding babies waiting to be shot by Nazi's. I despise the HuffPo, absolutely despise. It is worse that TMZ. The fact that the NYT would feature it means that the authors of the story did not carefully look at what it is doing.
40
Stopped reading and commenting on HuffPo when they insisted on using my FB log in. Back in the days of a regular commentator named "Minneapolis Mike" the site was OK (Minneapolis Mike was pretty funny)..after AOL it became, um, derivative and uninspiring. "Top ten ways to tell if you're bored."
19
Alas, what the Huff post passes off as news is mostly drivel. Its not so much the quite obvious liberal perspective, its just that most of what it publishes seems either wrong or irrelevant. As a scientist, this is particularly obvious to me on their science pages: its clear many of their writers know almost nothing about their subject matter.
So Huff Post is making money, but so is Fox News. Neither is providing a service to their readers/viewers beyond entertainment and reinforcing their ignorance-based viewpoints.
So Huff Post is making money, but so is Fox News. Neither is providing a service to their readers/viewers beyond entertainment and reinforcing their ignorance-based viewpoints.
34
I have always found Huffington to be full of herself who takes every opportunity for self promotion.
20
She was once referred to as the Sir Edmund Hillary of social climbers and that was before HP
2
Arianna is foreign-born opportunist not all that different from Rupert Murdoch or Tina Brown (all 3 of these people are Oxbridge graduates). The USA gives foreigners the chance to emigrate, take citizenship, and then wield real power in politics and the media. Remember, this woman first gained fame as the right-wing spouse of GOP Senate candidate Michael Huffington in 1994. Her then-husband nearly beat Dianne Feinstein in California but lost. She had done a complete political about-face a decade later when HP was founded in 2005.
Nothing wrong with flip-flopping if done for the principled reasons--Reagan went from being a New Deal Democrat who campaigned for Harry Truman in 1948 to endorsing Barry Goldwater for president 16 years later. But why Huffington shifted from right to left--I'm sure business opportunities had more to do with that. Still, media companies like HP and MSNBC became almost necessary as a means of countering the likes of Fox News during the height of George W. Bush's awful presidency.
Nothing wrong with flip-flopping if done for the principled reasons--Reagan went from being a New Deal Democrat who campaigned for Harry Truman in 1948 to endorsing Barry Goldwater for president 16 years later. But why Huffington shifted from right to left--I'm sure business opportunities had more to do with that. Still, media companies like HP and MSNBC became almost necessary as a means of countering the likes of Fox News during the height of George W. Bush's awful presidency.
4
Huffington first gained fame in Britain with The Female Woman, her anti-feminist rejoinder to Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch. You are absolutely correct in noting her extreme flip-flops, which I too am sure were caused by opportunism.
8
Huff Po is so full of click bait that I can't stand trying to read anything!
6
If by 'leading the Internet news business', you mean lying and cheating the reading public with sensationalism and liberal twaddle, you'd be right.
HuffPo is a failure BOTH as a source of real news (y'know, based on fact) and as an economic investment. AOL overpaid and regretted it greatly.
HuffPo is a failure BOTH as a source of real news (y'know, based on fact) and as an economic investment. AOL overpaid and regretted it greatly.
4
The Huffington Post may be doing some great journalism, but I haven't seen it. Most of what I have seen from the Huffington Post is advice for moms. Further, it's hard for me to take seriously a news organization that doesn't pay many, if not most, of its writers. Please reply with links to serious journalism that the Huffington Post has generated lately. I'm open minded.
7
I'm very liberal and never click there any longer; other than perhaps the lead story the site has the ambiance of the Daily Mail or National Enquirer with salacious come-on headlines, sob stories venerating the plight of the single mom and worst of all, unabashed pimping of animal abuse stories/photos that are sickening and depressing. HuffPo was handy in its early days as an aggregator but now it seems thrown together by people with the judgement of high-school seniors, at best.
5
If this is the caliber of individual we're lionizing in the go-go digital world, I'm happy to be out of the loop. HuffPost is pap and garbage, and she is no journalist. I stopped even visiting the page several years ago.
11
I used to read HuffPost quite regularly. I stopped about two years ago. My blood pressure dropped. It got a bit too hysterical for me. The employee abuse stories turned me off as well. I'll stick to the NY Times thank you.
2
They have the content alright, and millions worldwide read daily, but would it kill them to hire some competent editors?
4
I used to be a huge fan of the Huffington Post and a regular commenter there, until they changed their policy so that you had to use a Facebook account to log in. This was posed a way to guarantee civility since you could no longer hide behind an alias. Rather, I believe it was a yet another way to gather marketing data on the rubes that still considered it a platform for honest political discourse. To view it now, my machine veritably chokes on all the addware that has to load up before you can read a single article, most of which consist of clickbait: Imagine, all these years I've been scrambling eggs wrong!
10
Same her. Abandoned after the Facebook requirement.
1
I spent a significant part of my online time on Huffington Post before the Facebook requirement. The attraction was the comments more than the content. I learned a great deal from other people, including some who infuriated me but also educated me and broadened my thinking. But I prefer anonymity when I post online, and after that, I rarely wrote anything and others dropped off too. Too many crazies with grudges and guns out there today.
I admit I include the HuffPost on my browsing list. It covers all the areas no one in my circle talks about often in language no one I know would use. I am way too old to find Facebook interesting and have way too little time to spend on individual topic searches.
HuffPost is a guilty pleasure for me certainly. I am aware of the employee/non-employee exploitation issues and the idea of "news aggregation" has some questionable ethics attached. Reading "Politico" also causes me to be queasy as would the "Economist" if I wasn't so often charmed by its cleverness. In fact, most of the content I read comes from large corporations with less than stellar records of treating employees well and less than stellar records of editorial purity. Needless to say, I don't believe everything I read or hear from 24/7 media.
Thanks NYT for an article which offered a glimpse behind the curtain of the HuffPost/Ariana myth machine.
HuffPost is a guilty pleasure for me certainly. I am aware of the employee/non-employee exploitation issues and the idea of "news aggregation" has some questionable ethics attached. Reading "Politico" also causes me to be queasy as would the "Economist" if I wasn't so often charmed by its cleverness. In fact, most of the content I read comes from large corporations with less than stellar records of treating employees well and less than stellar records of editorial purity. Needless to say, I don't believe everything I read or hear from 24/7 media.
Thanks NYT for an article which offered a glimpse behind the curtain of the HuffPost/Ariana myth machine.
4
Please. Arianna Huffington is nothing more than the Matt Drudge of the Left, the hyperventilated hyperlinks packaged in neatly distorted headlines targeted at Outrage Nation. At least Drudge's site is user-friendly propaganda; Huffington is just browser overload.
16
I started reading Huffington Post during the last Presidential primaries when she boosted Obama over Clinton. Somehow I got hooked although I used to think I needed to take a shower after reading it! I've seen it decline into a cesspool, aiming at the worst common denominator in our already sad culture. I refuse to read it anymore but I'm saddened by the fact that she has exported this view of America to other countries. No wonder so many dislike us.
17
Stealing stories (from sites like NY Times or WaPo) and then rewriting them as their own is hardly journalism.
110
I would be profoundly ashamed of myself if I had destroyed journalism as quickly and thoroughly as she has.
Shamelessly mixing paid and independent journalism without marking the two.
Drawing readers with misleading and gimmicky headlines.
Making writers aim for views, not quality.
Drawing partisans with heavily-slanted coverage that obfuscates the truth.
Turning the fourth branch of government into a vehicle for corporate propaganda.
It's one thing to be famous and get a Times Magazine piece about you. It's quite another to be a good person... or to improve the world.
Shamelessly mixing paid and independent journalism without marking the two.
Drawing readers with misleading and gimmicky headlines.
Making writers aim for views, not quality.
Drawing partisans with heavily-slanted coverage that obfuscates the truth.
Turning the fourth branch of government into a vehicle for corporate propaganda.
It's one thing to be famous and get a Times Magazine piece about you. It's quite another to be a good person... or to improve the world.
73
Just serves to support a recent observation: The USA doesn't have "freedom of the press" so much as "freedom of the press to make a profit."
One correction needs to be made. Using AOL Real Estate as an example, the author implies that the AOL sites were just branded content factories before Arianna took over. This couldn't be further from the truth.
All of the AOL Money & Finance channels had full editorial staffs that were laid off the day before Arianna moved her operation to 770 Broadway. It wasn't until AFTER she took over that those sites really became mostly locations to host the branded deals. And she did that so she could claim to be above branded content yet still claim the revenue.
This isn't fundamentally a problem because it is the way the world works, but a lot of quality reporters and editors got let go and don't deserve to have their work labeled as lacking "editorial integrity". It reeks of Arianna's PR machine and a lack of fact-checking.
All of the AOL Money & Finance channels had full editorial staffs that were laid off the day before Arianna moved her operation to 770 Broadway. It wasn't until AFTER she took over that those sites really became mostly locations to host the branded deals. And she did that so she could claim to be above branded content yet still claim the revenue.
This isn't fundamentally a problem because it is the way the world works, but a lot of quality reporters and editors got let go and don't deserve to have their work labeled as lacking "editorial integrity". It reeks of Arianna's PR machine and a lack of fact-checking.
44
In my opinion Huffington Post's original political coverage is much better than the NYT's.
1
Michael,
Your post is just sad. You must be a Democrat/Progressive/Socialist to feel this way.
Your post is just sad. You must be a Democrat/Progressive/Socialist to feel this way.
As a proud Democrat/Progressive/Socialist, I can say that I give the Huffington Post no credence whatsoever.
6
Ah, Adriana Huffington. A rare bird indeed. Not to take anything anyway from her success which is most difficult in the chaotic world of social media, she does come across as yet another corporate narcissist....an empress-entrepreneur ala Anna Wintour with their personal entourages of stooges, sychophants and wannabees. The fact is that the HuffPost is a garbage can of surely middle-brow reportage and opinion. They are never a must-read and compared with the NYTImes or Washington Post Websites they are like a sickly younger sibling who is obese but not very bright. Ms. Huffington is like the Kim Kardashian of the chattering-classes....everywhere but really nowhere at the same time. As for her self-help pablum...read Zen MInd, Beginner's Mind instead.
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If you want to be taken somewhat seriously, it seems to me step one would be to learn the correct name.
2
The congratulations go not to Huffington, but to her PR people, who have managed to minimize in this story the disgraceful way she treats her employees, making them work long, ulcer-inducing hours for low pay -- if they are paid at all.
I don't understand how we can glorify someone who has made millions off the backs of unpaid workers (we used to call it slavery) and who is saluted for her "endurance" when she can afford every convenience imaginable, from chauffeurs to housekeepers to cooks to secretaries.
The end product is, of course, mediocre and cannot be considered anything like the real journalism that used to be part of the fabric of this country. If you start reading the Huffington Post, you will find that it wears quite thin after a few weeks. And if you write for that outlet not for pay, but for the "exposure," you are not as bright as you think you are.
If Huffington deserves any credit, it is for her ability to: 1) dupe readers into consuming the drivel on her site, 2) garner employee loyalty with a few snacks and free exercise programs, and 3) fool freelance writers into supplying free content to a for-profit enterprise. Of course, such hucksters have always been part of the landscape.
Try getting union representation for her overworked, underpaid minions and you'll see how "liberal" Huffington really is. My bet is that if she's faced with that kind of challenge, she'll suddenly move to the right of the Koch brothers.
I don't understand how we can glorify someone who has made millions off the backs of unpaid workers (we used to call it slavery) and who is saluted for her "endurance" when she can afford every convenience imaginable, from chauffeurs to housekeepers to cooks to secretaries.
The end product is, of course, mediocre and cannot be considered anything like the real journalism that used to be part of the fabric of this country. If you start reading the Huffington Post, you will find that it wears quite thin after a few weeks. And if you write for that outlet not for pay, but for the "exposure," you are not as bright as you think you are.
If Huffington deserves any credit, it is for her ability to: 1) dupe readers into consuming the drivel on her site, 2) garner employee loyalty with a few snacks and free exercise programs, and 3) fool freelance writers into supplying free content to a for-profit enterprise. Of course, such hucksters have always been part of the landscape.
Try getting union representation for her overworked, underpaid minions and you'll see how "liberal" Huffington really is. My bet is that if she's faced with that kind of challenge, she'll suddenly move to the right of the Koch brothers.
127
For Ms. Huffington to "suddenly move to the right of the Koch brothers" would not surprise me at all as that is where she came from. Back when married to mega-rich Michael Huffington, the Republican politician, she had one of her little epiphanies and became "liberal" - not left-wing, the same way she had her little "Thrive" epiphany. If I sound cynical, can someone 'splain me where the sincerity is? I see only self-promotion and a website built on the backs of mini-self promoters.
"editorial integrity"! You can't scroll a page of the Huffington Post without seeing headlines featuring boobs, butts, male youknowwhats, and worse. I know the business is about page views, but she should be ashamed of herself. She constantly hypes her world-class news organization, yet she's treated women like T & A.
72
I can think of one thing positive about the Huffington Post: it makes me appreciate the quality reporting and quality editing I experience in the New York Times!
3
It's ironic that The Huffington Post should have claim a pole position in the Internet's social media sphere: it is one of the most bloated and least user-friendly websites for reading news that isn't printed on paper.
31