The Huffington Post
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| Founded | May 2005 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Arianna Huffington Kenneth Lerer Jonah Peretti |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, United States |
| Key people | Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-Chief Tim Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer Roy Sekoff, editor |
| Employees | 200+ |
| Parent | AOL |
| Slogan | "The Internet Newspaper: News, Blogs, Video, Community" |
| Website | huffingtonpost.com |
| Alexa rank |  89 (September 2011[update])[1] |
| Type of site | News & blogging |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available in | English |
| Launched | May 9, 2005 |
| Current status | Active |
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring various news sources and columnists which lean liberal.[2] The site offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and comedy, and has news, blogs, and original content. The Huffington Post was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet and alternative to news websites like the Drudge Report.[3] On February 7, 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million making Arianna Huffington editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group.[4][5]
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[edit] History
The Huffington Post was founded by Arianna Huffington in May 2005, and launched a few days later on May 9. In 2008, the site launched its first local version, HuffPost Chicago;[6] HuffPost New York[7] launched in June, 2009, HuffPost Denver[8] launched on September 15, 2009,[9] and HuffPost Los Angeles[10] launched on December 2, 2009.[11] The Huffington Post has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site each month. Prior to The Huffington Post, Huffington hosted a website called Ariannaonline.com. Her first foray into the Internet was a website called Resignation.com, which called for the resignation of President Bill Clinton and was a rallying place for conservatives opposing Clinton.[12] The Huffington Post launched its first international edition, HuffPost Canada, on May 26, 2011.[13] On the 6 July 2011 the Huffington Post UK launched its UK edition.[14]
[edit] Contributors
In addition to columns by Arianna Huffington and a core group of contributors such as John Conyers, Harry Shearer, Jeff Pollack, and Roy Sekoff, The Huffington Post has over 9,000 bloggers—from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts—who contribute on a wide range of topics.
Celebrities are allowed to post blogs on the site, and a number have opted to do so over the years. In many cases, such as that of Robert Reich, content is cross-posted among multiple sites.[15]
The site also publishes columns by specialists in a wide range of fields such as Alice Waters on food, Doctor Harold Katz on dental health, Suzie Heumann on sex, Diane Ravitch on education, Jacob M. Appel on ethics, Howard Steven Friedman on statistics and politics, Auren Hoffman on business and politics, and Jon LaPook on medicine, and publishes scoops of current news stories and links to selected prominent news stories. Unlike other left-leaning blogs such as Znet or Daily Kos, The Huffington Post offers both news commentary and coverage.[citation needed]
The Huffington Post's OffTheBus is a citizen-powered online news organization that is a collaboration between The Huffington Post, New York University (NYU), and Jay Rosen's NewAssignment.Net.[16][17] The Huffington Post's FundRace is a website that tracks contributions to the presidential campaigns and includes a mapping feature that shows contributions broken down by city, neighborhood, and block.[18]
[edit] Investment
In August 2006, The Huffington Post announced that SoftBank Capital would invest $5 million in the site, which had grown in popularity in only a year, to help expand it.[19] Plans included hiring more staff to update the site 24 hours a day, hiring in-house reporters, and a multimedia team to do video reports. Alan Patricof's Greycroft Partners also invested. The news marked the site's "first round of venture capital funding."[20]
The site now has invested in Vlogging, or video blogging, with many of the site contributors contributing via video, and capturing clips in the media and posting them on the site.
In November 2008, The Huffington Post completed $15 million fundraising from investors, to finance expansion including more journalism and the provision of local news across the United States.[21]
On February 7, 2011, AOL announced it would acquire The Huffington Post for US$315 million. As part of the deal Arianna Huffington will become president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include The Huffington Post and existing AOL properties Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, and StyleList.[5]
[edit] Criticism
The Huffington Post has been criticized by several science bloggers, as well as online news sources, for including articles by supporters of alternative medicine and anti-vaccine activists and censoring rebuttals written by science bloggers before publishing.[22][23][24][25]
Steven Novella, president of the New England Skeptical Society, criticized The Huffington Post for allowing homeopathy proponent Dana Ullman to have a blog there:
- "Dana Ullman, a notorious homeopathy apologist, actually has a regular blog over at HuffPo. For those of us who follow such things, the start of his blog there marked the point of no return for the Huffington Post – clearly the editors had decided to go the path of Saruman and "abandon reason for madness." They gave up any pretense of caring about scientific integrity and became a rag of pseudoscience."[26]
In February 2011, Visual Art Source, which had previously been cross-posting material from its website, went on strike against The Huffington Post.[27]
Since March 2011, the strike and the call to boycott The Huffington Post was joined and endorsed by the Huffington Post Union of Bloggers and Writers (HPUB), the National Writers Union (NWU) and the Newspaper Guild (TNG) [28]
In April 2011, The Huffington Post was targeted with a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed in United States District Court in New York by Jonathan Tasini on behalf of thousands of uncompensated bloggers.[29]
[edit] Awards
- The Huffington Post is 2010 People's Voice Winner in the 14th Webby Awards [30] and is the Winner in Lead411's New York City Hot 125.[31] The Huffington Post lost the 2010 Webby Award jury prize for Best Political Blog to Truthdig.[32]
- The HuffingtonPost.com was named second among the 25 Best Blogs of 2009 by Time Magazine.[33]
- The Huffington Post won the 2006 and 2007 Webby Awards for Best Politics Blog.
- Huffington Post contributor Bennet Kelley was awarded the Los Angeles Press Club's 2007 Southern California Journalism Award for Online Commentary[34] for political commentary published on the site.[35]
- The Huffington Post is ranked the most powerful blog in the world by The Observer.[36]
- The Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington was named as number 12 in Forbes' first ever list of the Most Influential Women In Media in 2009.[37] She has also moved up to number 42 in the Guardian's Top 100 in Media List.[38]
[edit] References
- ^ "Huffingtonpost.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2011-09-01.
- ^ Kurtz, Howard (July 9, 2007). "A Blog That Made it Big". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
- ^ "The Huffington Post". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1192975/The-Huffington-Post. Retrieved 2009-03-03.
- ^ "The Huffington Post Media Group Makes Key Announcements". The Huffington Post. 2011-03-14. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/the-huffington-post-media_n_835283.html. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ a b "AOL Agrees To Acquire The Huffington Post". AOL. 2011-02-07. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/aol-huffington-post_n_819375.html. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ "Chicago News and Opinion". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chicago/. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ "New York News and Opinion". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/new-york/. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ "Denver News and Opinion". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/denver/. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ Roberts, Michael (2009-09-15). "The Debut of Huffington Post Denver". Blogs.westword.com. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/09/the_debut_of_huffington_post_d.php. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- ^ "Los Angeles News and Opinion". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/los-angeles/. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ "Go West, Young Internet Newspaper: Introducing HuffPost Los Angeles". Huffingtonpost.com. 2009-12-02. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/go-west-young-internet-ne_b_376756.html. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- ^ Editors (December 16, 1998) "Direct Access: Arianna Huffington." Washington Post. See also Huffington's September 14, 1998 column at Resignation.com, where she calls for Clinton to resign, and her December 24, 1998 column at Resignation.com, where she states why she started Resignation.com.
- ^ "Huffington Post launches Canadian version". Toronto: The Globe and Mail. 2011-05-26. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/huffington-post-launches-canadian-version/article2035896/. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14042203
- ^ Huffington Post blogs
- ^ "Off The Bus News and Opinion on The Huffington Post". Huffingtonpost.com. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/off-the-bus/. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
- ^ "Get Off the Bus : CJR". www.cjr.org. http://www.cjr.org/feature/get_off_the_bus.php. Retrieved 2009-03-07. "OffTheBus (OTB) was a citizen-powered campaign news site co-sponsored by The Huffington Post and Jay Rosen’s NewAssignment, at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute."
- ^ "Campaign Donors : Fundrace 2008 – Huffington Post". Fundrace.huffingtonpost.com. 2009-08-28. http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
- ^ "The Huffington Post Announces $25 Million In Funding" (PDF). http://www.softbank.com/pages/HP_Oak%20_120108.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
- ^ Softbank Capital invests $5 mln in Huffington Post, Reuters, August 7, 2006. Retrieved October 18, 2006.
- ^ Business big shot: Arianna Huffington, online entrepreneur The Times November 21, 2008
- ^ Owens, Simon (2009-05-02). "Science bloggers challenge credibility of Huffington Post "wellness" editor". Dailykos.com. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/2/727191/-Science-bloggers-challenge-credibility-of-Huffington-Post-wellness-editor. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- ^ "Steven Novella: ''The Huffington Post’s War On Science''". Sciencebasedmedicine.org. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=470. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- ^ Parikh, Rahul K. (2009-05-15). "The Huffington Post is crazy about your health". Salon. http://www.salon.com/env/vital_signs/2009/07/30/huffington_post/. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
- ^ PZ Myers (2009-12-14). "What do Fox News and the Huffington Post have in common?". Scienceblogs.com. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/what_do_fox_news_and_the_huffi.php. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
- ^ Steven Novella (31 January 2011). "Homeopathy Pseudoscience at the Huffpo". New England Skeptical Society. http://theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2775. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ Lasarow, Bill (2011-03-05). "Why our writers are on strike against the Huffington Post – Bill Lasarow". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/05/huffington-post-aol.
- ^ "Don't cross the picket line - boycott the Huffington Post". 2011-06-15. http://nwu.org/boycott-huffington-post-0.
- ^ Huffington Post Is Target of Suit on Behalf of Bloggers, Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, 12 April 2011
- ^ "14th Annual Webby Awards Nominees & Winners". Webbyawards.com. http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ "New York City Hot 125". Lead411.com. http://www.lead411.com/topnewyorkcompanies.html. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ "14th Annual Webby Nominees & Winners". Webbyawards.com. http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php#webby_entry_blog_political. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ^ "The Huffington Post – 25 Best Blogs 2009". TIME. 2009-02-13. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1879276_1879279_1879212,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
- ^ 49th Southern California Journalism Award Winners[dead link]
- ^ Huffington Post page for Bennet Kelley.
- ^ Aldred, Jessica (2008-03-09). "The world's 50 most powerful blogs". London: Observer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
- ^ Kiri Blakeley (2009-07-14). "In Pictures: The Most Influential Women In Media – No. 12: Arianna Huffington". Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/14/most-influential-women-in-media-forbes-woman-power-women-oprah-winfrey_slide_13.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
- ^ Close (2009-07-13). "Arianna Huffington | MediaGuardian 100 2009 | Media | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/11/arianna-huffington-mediaguardian-100-2009. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
[edit] External links
- The Huffington Post official site
- The Huffington Post on Twitter
- The Huffington Post collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- The Huffington Post collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Why our writers are on strike against the Huffington Post, Bill Lasarow, The Guardian, 5 March 2011
- All the Aggregation That's Fit to Aggregate, Bill Keller, "The New York Times Magazine", 10 March 2011
