Change is in air at the Huffington Post, dahhhh-link. We may not know what the new Huffington Post Media Group will look like when it emerges from the $315 million AOL deal announced this weekend, but chances are it will look at least a little different than the throw-it-at-the-wall site in place today. Arianna Huffington yesterday wrote in an e-mail to contributors that the merger “makes it possible for us to execute our vision at light speed…it will be like stepping of a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet.” With that in mind, we thought it might be good to initiate a Huffington Post retrospective and ask: What were some of your favorite—and some of the most aggravating—aspects of HuffPo in its “train days”? Let us know how you have spent your time with the Huffington Post before that supersonic jet starts revving its engine. And if you haven’t spent much of your time there, tell us why.
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I don't go to Huffington's site for many years now-- because I despise her emphasis on CELEBRITY B.S. No matter what you want to read there are women's breasts, surgeries, break-ups that distract readers on the page. When that happened, it was clear she had already sold out. Journalists of conscience should not post there. They should now give what is most often FREE work to other sites that understand the nuance of the culture war and flood of misinformation we are up against.
#1 Posted by Ann Simonton, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 01:03 PM
Among science writers, HuffPo is infamous for bad science and health blogs — credulous, anti-evidence, anti-vaccine, etc.
#2 Posted by Maryn, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 01:06 PM
HuffPost College is a great site. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/college/
I also hope she continues with the Investigative Fund: http://huffpostfund.org/
#3 Posted by Cathy, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 01:18 PM
HuffLove: the wide variety of contributors (even the ones I don't like or agree with). I really hope that's the single feature that remains, but I have my doubts
HuffHate: the design. Absolutely Terrible. It's all over the place with little or no logic. Even the sub-categories are a mess. There are (admittedly bad) days when I just shut it down to maintain my sanity
#4 Posted by Iowaman, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 01:38 PM
In a way, it doesn't matter what we think. The first rule of publishing periodicals is to keep publishing. HuffPo brilliantly figured out a formula for driving numbers using limited resources. 1) Reader-generated content 2) Limited original content and wire sources, but enough to feel like there's more than just blog-spouting 3) intensive aggregation with tabloid headlines, so you can follow current events and be titillated in one shot.
That said, the design was too busy for me and the format described above did not hook me. I didn't spend much time on there (maybe once a week, or every couple days at most). But when I did go, usually to follow a specific item, I invariably clicked on several more items than I intended to, so while the formula didn't hook me as a regular reader it worked at least a little once I was there.
I also took advantage of the platform to blog a couple of items, but the return (number of readers and/or comments) wasn't enough of a draw to keep doing it regularly (although that might be my own boring fault!).
The only way this merger changes my Internet usage is if they use the resources to start developing more in-depth and breaking news and deepening their original content and credibility. Doubt that's going to happen.
#5 Posted by Sito , CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 02:03 PM
Would someone in the media, please, just one person, ask how much of that $315 million chuck of dough is actually going to the workers of content who for for years wrote and slaved away and spent their own money on expenses -- how much are they receiving? After all, without them HuffPo would have petered out the first morning. Take a wild guess how much they are getting? Isn't there something weird here. Hey, if thye writers at CJR and NYT were not paid, how long would it take for the MSM to scream, this isn't fair!
#6 Posted by Stew, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 02:13 PM
HuffLive: Ditto on the wide variety of content. There are a few authors I like to follow on HuffPo.
HuffHate: The smarmy crap, e.g., gutter ads for scammy, bogus stuff. Also the fixation with TMZ/Gawker type content.
#7 Posted by Brad, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 05:47 PM
Huffpost's biggest sin for me is what a crappy, unprofessional website it is technically. Nothing holds still, the pages jump up and down so you can't read, some pages open at the bottom instead of the top, the page reloads live instead of behind the scenes so when you're reading a headline deciding whether to click on it, the page reloads and the story disappears.
There's are a ton of other things wrong, but you get the idea. Although I quit reading it years ago, I check in now and then hoping they've hired a chief technology officer, but they have not and it just plain hurts to much to try to read it.
Can I be the only one who feels this way?
#8 Posted by Ronni, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 06:15 PM
I'm willing to give Ms Huffington her props for increasing not only her stockpile of cash but also her profile for the cable talk shows where her status will rise to the dizzying heights that cable news is able to take her.
She has pulled this off at the expense of her dedicated writing and editorial staffs and all her faithful readers, but this is America where the money talks and all the rest doesn't really matter. And, with the help of her tax lawyers and consultants, she'll not pay a dime to the IRS. Just like the good republican that she really is.
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#9 Posted by p joe, CJR on Thu 10 Feb 2011 at 01:29 PM
МТС
#10 Posted by treaduath, CJR on Tue 15 Feb 2011 at 08:37 PM
дебош
#11 Posted by Orallealodo, CJR on Wed 16 Feb 2011 at 02:39 PM