The Huffington Post (“HuffPo”) is a news and opinion Web site founded in May 2005 that offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style and green. Its co-founders, Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer and Jonah Peretti, have admitted to starting the site as a counter to the conservative Drudge Report. Huffington even acknowledged the Matt Drudge and his Drudge Report as a source of inspiration.
“We could not have existed without Drudge,” Huffington told the Washington Post in 2007. “Drudge habituated people to going online for their news.”
After examining the Huffington Post, it is clear why the site does so well. It is extremely user-friendly, with tabs categorizing news articles by topic and region. Bloggers are a separate category, and side columns highlight the most popular articles and blogs for the readers. While advertisements are noticeable, they do not interrupt stories’ text and are clearly identifiable. The photographs on the page vary in size, orientation and content. Some are rather boring photos of speeches, but some people can argue that these help readers identify prominent figures on the site and draw more traffic to the site with their big names and image results for search engines. By enabling readers to follow the site through Twitter, Yahoo, Buzz, BlackBerry, Google, iPhone, e-mail and RSS feeds, the Huffington Post succeeds in covering all its bases.
The links at the bottom of the home page provide hyperlinks to other news sources, such as the Associated Press and BBC Web sites, and also lists blogs and columnists. Basically, the site does everything possible to saturate the reader with content. Because space is unlimited online, it’s OK for the Huffington Post to post things several times all over the site. The links provided are also a hint to where the site gets a lot of the articles. I don’t think Huffington would link to rival sites—the Drudge Report is not linked.
The Huffington Post had 8.9 million unique visitors in February 2009. In the last five years, the HuffPo has received literally millions in investments.
In August 2006, SoftBank Capital invested $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.
In November 2008, The Huffington Post completed a $15 million fundraising from investors. The money will finance expansion including more journalism and the provision of local news.
In 2009 the HuffPo announced that it received $25 million in funding from Oak Investment Parts, a California-based venture capital firm. Huffington said the money will be used to invest in the company's technology and infrastructure, increase its in-house advertising capabilities and continue to expand its content. Local versions and a new investigative journalism initiative were part of the investment plan.
In the past, the site benefitted from Huffington’s personal connections with celebrities and partnerships with People, Rolling Stone and TMZ.com, which according to Huffington, represents a new era for mainstream media that share content with competitors.
New sections of the HuffPo I found:
OffTheBus is a citizen-powered online news organization that is a collaboration between New York University and Jay Rosen’s NewAssignment.Net.
FundRace is a section that tracks contributions to the presidential campaigns and includes a mapping feature that shows contributions broken down by city, neighborhood and block.
In my research on the site, two recent launchings act as testament to the always-updating aspect of the Internet. Whatever is in print is old the second it’s printed.
In February, Huffington said she’s been on college campuses across the nation making appearances and going on tours with her daughter, which made her miss the vitality of college life. The new college section aggregates content from more than 60 college papers. Check out an Alligator article titled "Demanding Justice for Shot Grad Student" on the HuffPo here.
The Huffington Post has spent the past few years expanding beyond its initial political focus. This week the site went back to its roots by launching the HuffPost Hill -- a daily e-mail newsletter. The founders said HuffPost Hill will blend news and opinion with Washington, D.C., gossip. Huffington Post chief White House correspondent Sam Stein and senior Washington correspondent Dan Froomkin are a few of the contributors, but political reporting is not the only focus; HuffPost Hill will follow celebrity and politician sightings in the capital and will feature tips on various fundraisers and TV appearances by political experts.
According to HuffPo senior congressional correspondent Ryan Grim, the e-newsletter should serve as a platform for smaller news items that would otherwise be left on the cutting room floor.
Media Bistro has a couple quotes from the founders and contributors to HuffPo Hill.
Below is an interview I had with Leah Finnegan, a staffer for the Huffington Post’s new college section:
How did you get a position at the Huffington Post?
My friend sent me a Craiglist post advertising it.
What do your duties include?
Every day, I update the college page multiple times. I link to stories, condense multiple stories into one post, talk to college editors, create slideshows, brainstorm and have lots of meetings with my boss.
How active are the site’s founders in day-to-day proceedings?
Fairly active. I get e-mails from Arianna (Huffington) on a regular basis about stories, ideas etc.
Does the HuffPo hold budget meetings for the day’s front page like a print paper?
No
How do you get traffic? How do you market the site?
Search Engine Optimization, Twitter, Facebook, in-house coordination
What kind of technology do you use?
The Huffington Post is super Google-savvy and knows how to read search engines so that HuffPost content goes to as massive an audience as possible.
Do you pay a lot of attention to Search Engine Optimization, especially for headlines?
Yes. Keywords
What is the revenue model for the HuffPo? Advertising only?
Mostly, I think. Not quite sure.
Do you sell your own ads? Or do you use an ad network?
We have our own ad staff.
Who do you think are your main competitors?
Yahoo, The Daily Beast, AOL, New York Times, Wash Post, Drudge Report, Gawker
How big of a staff do you have? Are your writers paid? Are you paid?
I am paid. There are about 100 people on staff. I work with one senior editor and one intern, who is unpaid.
How do you handle comments and contributed content? Do you review them before publication? How do you prevent inappropriate things from being posted?
We have comment moderators scattered across the country who monitor comment content. If I'm posting a sensitive story, I can opt to impose automatic moderation. A team of blog editors maintains quality control over that area.
What about citizen journalism?
Citizen journalism is a healthy component of HuffPost College -- we have correspondents on several campuses who regularly write us original stories that always do pretty well on our page.
How often do you update?
6 to 7 times per day, posting multiple stories at a time.
Have you looked at aggregating local blogs and other kinds of content rather than producing it all yourselves?
We aggregate content from more than 60 college papers daily.
Do you intend to do anything in print ever?
In my own career? Maybe. At HuffPost? No.
What would you tell someone looking for a job or internship at the Huffington Post?
This is what we post on our Web site for college section internships:
The Huffington Post recently launched a new vertical called HuffPost College and has an opening for a unpaid internship. Ideally, the candidate is a current student or recent college graduate who has worked for his/her school paper and is familiar with the in's-and-out's of collegiate news. Although this internship will continue into summer, the ideal candidate will be able to start ASAP. The best candidates will be meticulous, well-organized and is passionate about news.
Primary responsibilities include:
- Establishing contacts with writers, editors and advisers of numerous college news sites
- Forging and maintaining relationships with leaders at college newspapers
- Correspondence and other communication, including editorial and technical problem-solving, with blog contributors
- Editing and publishing content from student journalists around the country
- Assisting in long-term strategy-building and goal-setting for HuffPost College
Experience with Photoshop, Movable Type or similar blogging platform, basic HTML preferred.
This is a great opportunity to start something new at a leading news site.
Send resume and very brief statement of interest to huffpostcollege@gmail.com with "HuffPost - College" in subject line.
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