The Huffington Post
Encyclopedia
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog
founded by Arianna Huffington
, Kenneth Lerer
, and Jonah Peretti
, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, 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
. 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.
in May 2005, and launched a few days later on May 9. 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.
The Huffington Post launched its first international edition, HuffPost Canada, on May 26, 2011. On the 6 July 2011 the Huffington Post UK launched its UK edition. On October 10, 2011, Huffington announced a deal with Le Monde
and Les Nouvelles Editions Indépendantes for a French-language
, France-targeted edition, Le Huffington Post, to be launched by the end of 2011.
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.
The site also publishes columns by specialists in a wide range of fields such as Anand Reddi on global health issues, 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, Jon LaPook on medicine, and Iris Krasnow
on marriage, and publishes scoop
s 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.
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. 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.
would invest $5 million in the site, which had grown in popularity in only a year, to help expand it. 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."
The site now has invested in Vlog
ging, 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.
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.
and anti-vaccine
activists and censoring rebuttals written by science bloggers before publishing.
Steven Novella
, president of the New England Skeptical Society
, criticized The Huffington Post for allowing homeopathy
proponent Dana Ullman
to have a blog there:
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)
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.
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
founded by Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
, Kenneth Lerer
Kenneth Lerer
Kenneth Lerer is an American businessman and media executive. He is the chairman and co-founder of The Huffington Post, a liberal/progressive American news website and content aggregating blog, headquartered in New York. He is the General Partner of Lerer Media Ventures, an angel fund in New York...
, and Jonah Peretti
Jonah Peretti
Jonah Peretti is an Internet entrepreneur and a founder of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post. The New York Times called him a "viral marketing hot dog."...
, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, 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
Drudge Report
The Drudge Report is a news aggregation website. Run by Matt Drudge with the help of Joseph Curl and Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as links to many...
. On February 7, 2011, AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million making Arianna Huffington editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group.
History
The Huffington Post was founded by Arianna HuffingtonArianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
in May 2005, and launched a few days later on May 9. 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
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and was a rallying place for conservatives opposing Clinton.
Local and international editions
In 2008, the site launched its first local version, HuffPost Chicago; HuffPost New York launched in June, 2009, HuffPost Denver launched on September 15, 2009, HuffPost Los Angeles launched on December 2, 2009, and HuffPost San Francisco, launched on July 12, 2011. HuffPost Detroit, launched on November 17, 2011. The most recent, HuffPost Miami launched in November 2011.The Huffington Post launched its first international edition, HuffPost Canada, on May 26, 2011. On the 6 July 2011 the Huffington Post UK launched its UK edition. On October 10, 2011, Huffington announced a deal with Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
and Les Nouvelles Editions Indépendantes for a French-language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, France-targeted edition, Le Huffington Post, to be launched by the end of 2011.
Contributors
In addition to columns by Arianna HuffingtonArianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
and a core group of contributors such as John Conyers
John Conyers
John Conyers, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1965 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...
, Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
, 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
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997....
, content is cross-posted among multiple sites.
The site also publishes columns by specialists in a wide range of fields such as Anand Reddi on global health issues, Alice Waters
Alice Waters
Alice Louise Waters is an American chef, restaurateur, activist, and author. She is the owner of Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its organic, locally-grown ingredients and for pioneering California cuisine.Waters opened the restaurant in 1971. It has consistently ranked...
on food, Doctor Harold Katz on dental health, Suzie Heumann on sex, Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch
Diane Silvers Ravitch is an historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Previously, she was a U.S...
on education, Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....
on ethics, Howard Steven Friedman
Howard Friedman
Howard Steven Friedman is a prominent American statistician, health economist, writer and artist currently employed at the United Nations Population Fund and as an adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University...
on statistics and politics, Auren Hoffman
Auren Hoffman
Auren Raphael Hoffman is an American entrepreneur, CEO of Rapleaf, editor of Summation.net, angel investor, and member of Council on Foreign Relations.-Business:Hoffman sold his first tech company, while still in his 20's...
on business and politics, Jon LaPook on medicine, and Iris Krasnow
Iris Krasnow
Iris Krasnow is an American author, journalism professor, and keynote speaker who specializes in relationships and personal growth. She is the author of Surrendering to Motherhood , the New York Times bestseller Surrendering to Marriage , Surrendering to Yourself , and I Am My Mother's Daughter...
on marriage, and publishes scoop
Scoop (term)
Scoop is an informal term used in journalism. The word connotes originality, importance, surprise or excitement, secrecy and exclusivity.Stories likely considered to be scoops are important news, likely to interest or concern many people. A scoop is typically a new story, or a new aspect to an...
s of current news stories and links to selected prominent news stories. Unlike other left-leaning blogs such as Znet or Daily Kos
Daily Kos
Daily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...
, The Huffington Post offers both news commentary and coverage.
The Huffington Post's OffTheBus is a citizen-powered online news organization that is a collaboration between The Huffington Post, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU), and Jay Rosen
Jay Rosen
Jay Rosen is a media critic, a writer, and a professor of journalism at New York University.Rosen has been on the journalism faculty at New York University since 1986; from 1999 to 2005 he served as chair of the Department.He has been one of the earliest advocates and supporters of citizen...
's NewAssignment.Net. 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.
Investment
In August 2006, The Huffington Post announced that SoftBank CapitalSoftbank Capital
SoftBank Capital is a venture capital group in the United States, focusing on technology and telecom early stage businesses. The firm is established and led by four partners: Ron Fisher, Eric Hippeau, Steve Murray, and Michael Perlis...
would invest $5 million in the site, which had grown in popularity in only a year, to help expand it. 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
Alan Patricof
Alan Patricof is an American investor and one of the early pioneers of the venture capital and private equity industries. Patricof founded Apax Partners , which is today one of the largest private equity firms globally.-Career:Over the course of his 40-year career in...
's Greycroft Partners
Greycroft Partners
Greycroft Partners is a venture capital firm focused on investments in early stage companies primarily in the digital media sector. The firm raised its first fund with $75 million of investor commitments and has deployed that fund into 34 companies....
also invested. The news marked the site's "first round of venture capital funding."
The site now has invested in Vlog
Vlog
Video blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidding or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video, and is a form of Web television. Entries often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take...
ging, 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.
On February 7, 2011, AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
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
Engadget
Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Though on appearance Engadget functions much like a blog and may be defined as such, much of its editorial content takes the form of an online magazine...
, TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
, Moviefone
Moviefone
Moviefone is an American-based movie listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theatre information, film reviews, or advance tickets...
, MapQuest
MapQuest
MapQuest is an American free online web mapping service owned by AOL. The company was founded in 1967 as Cartographic Services, a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1969. When it became an independent company in 1994, it was...
, Black Voices, PopEater
Popeater
PopEater.com was an American gossip news web site owned by AOL Television. It was one of the most popular gossip blogs in America, ranking in the top 20s on Technorati's Top 100 and ranks #28 on Pikimal. On 11 July 2011, Arianna Huffington and PopEater co-announced PopEater had "a new home" at...
, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, and StyleList.
Science controversies
The Huffington Post has been criticized by several science bloggers, as well as online news sources, for including articles by supporters of alternative medicineAlternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....
and anti-vaccine
Vaccine controversy
A vaccine controversy is a dispute over the morality, ethics, effectiveness, or safety of vaccinations. Medical and scientific evidence surrounding vaccinations generally demonstrate that the benefits of preventing suffering and death from infectious diseases outweigh rare adverse effects of...
activists and censoring rebuttals written by science bloggers before publishing.
Steven Novella
Steven Novella
Steven P. Novella is an American clinical neurologist, assistant professor and Director of General Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine...
, president of the New England Skeptical Society
New England Skeptical Society
The New England Skeptical Society is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting science and reason. It was originally founded in January 1996 as the Connecticut Skeptical Society...
, criticized The Huffington Post for allowing homeopathy
Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient...
proponent Dana Ullman
Dana Ullman
Gregory Dana Ullman is an American author, publisher, journalist, and proponent in the field of homeopathy.Ullman received his MPH from the University of California at Berkeley, and has since taught homeopathy and integrative health care.Ullman served as an instructor in homeopathy at the...
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 returnPoint of no returnThe point of no return is the point beyond which one must continue on his or her current course of action because turning back is physically impossible, prohibitively expensive or dangerous. It is also used when the distance or effort required to get back would be greater than the remainder of the...
for the Huffington Post – clearly the editors had decided to go the path of SarumanSarumanSaruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the tale, but later on aims at gaining...
and "abandon reason for madness." They gave up any pretense of caring about scientific integrity and became a rag of pseudosciencePseudosciencePseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
."
Labor disputes
In February 2011, Visual Art Source, which had previously been cross-posting material from its website, went on strike against The Huffington Post.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
National Writers Union
National Writers Union , founded on November 19, 1981, is the trade union in the United States for freelance and contract writers: journalists, book and short fiction authors, business and technical writers, web content providers, and poets...
(NWU) and the Newspaper Guild
Newspaper Guild
The Newspaper Guild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933 who noticed that unionized printers and truck drivers were making more money than they did...
(TNG)
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
Jonathan Tasini
Jonathan Yoav Tasini is a strategist, organizer, activist, commentator and writer, primarily focusing his energies on the topics of work, labor and the economy. On June 11, 2009, he announced that he would challenge New York U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the Democratic primary for the 2010...
on behalf of thousands of uncompensated bloggers.
Awards
- The Huffington Post is 2010 People's Voice Winner in the 14th WebbyWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
Awards and is the Winner in Lead411's New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Hot 125. The Huffington Post lost the 2010 Webby Award jury prize for Best Political Blog to TruthdigTruthdigTruthdig is a Web magazine that provides a mix of long-form articles, interviews, and blog-like commentary on current events, delivered from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major "digs" led by authorities in their fields who write multifaceted pieces about contemporary, often...
. - The HuffingtonPost.com was named second among the 25 Best Blogs of 2009 by Time Magazine.
- The Huffington Post won the 2006 and 2007 Webby AwardsWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
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 for political commentary published on the site.
- The Huffington Post is ranked the most powerful blog in the world by The ObserverThe ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
. - 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. She has also moved up to number 42 in the Guardian's Top 100 in Media List.
External links
- 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
- News aggregation site similar to Huffington Post NewsCaplet