Posted by Jeff Dunetz Feb 13th 2011 at 4:58 am in Huffington Post, Mainstream Media, News, Uncategorized, citizen journalism, elections 2012, journalism, media bias Last Sunday, while most of us were feasting on chips, seven-layer dip and the latest Super Bowl commercials, Arianna Huffington was announcing that progressive “news” site Huffington Post was purchased by AOL for $315 million dollars. When announcing the deal on her site Arianna Huffington, said she will become president and editor in chief the Huffington Post Media Group, which will include her properties and the many of the AOL collection of sites and would control news content for the AOL network.
In an instant, AOL greatly expanded its content offerings as well as its reputation as a news organization. This is crucial for its strategy to move away from selling the dial-up service which, for many Americans, was their initial entry into the internet experience. For others it was a major source of stacks of free CDs for use as doorstops, stopping tables from shaking, and even for creative arts and crafts projects.
Along with all of that cash (which presumably will not be paid in old AOL CDs) the deal gives Huffington control of all AOL’s News content which provides an opportunity to expand the reach of the Huffpo’s progressive-slanted news and columnists messages—twelve-fold:
When Kenny Lerer and I co-founded The Huffington Post in May 2005, we had high hopes. But even we would have been hard put to predict that less than six years later we would be able to announce a deal that now makes it possible for us to execute our vision at light speed. AOL is an online pioneer that engenders great trust among its 250 million global users. HuffPost is on the cutting edge of creating news that is social and brings with it a distinctive voice and a highly engaged audience.Reach however is only part of the story. The deal allows Huffington to distribute the Post’s progressive content without the progressive label. When people read news content from the “Huffington Post” they know what they are getting, news and opinion from the progressive point of view. Now that same news and opinion can be recycled and distributed across the internet under the “politically neutral” name of AOL. AOL’s reach into the news world goes much further than the sign-up screen, Politics Daily, etc.
I contend that the most significant news property that will be controlled by the Huffington Post’s progressive machine is the least known, Patch.com. Patch is a network of 500+ “hyperlocal” websites covering 800 communities which combines national/regional information with local community news editors filing stories and updating community-specific within the communities they serve. As of today the Patch network is concentrated mostly in the larger states.
Having spent five years in the hyper-local media business, as marketing director of the company that produces newspaper-distributed magazines such as American Profile, I can assure you that what this kind of media loses in terms of mass national audience it gains in believability and reader interest. What drives this heightened interest is the fact that these sites contain editorial written by “next-door neighbors,” cover High School Football games Jr. played in, local weather, store-openings and other announcements. Local news effects people’s lives today. On a national basis people may be interested in what is going on in Egypt, but their lives are more directly effected by the announcement on their local Patch site that “garbage pick-up day” is moving from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Why is this important? As former speaker Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.” Now consider the Patch network combined with AOL’s vast data bases local attitudes, purchases etc. During national and state campaigns, Huffpo’s biased editorial can be written and distributed according to the specific issues concerning that specific area. A small town in Long Island can get a story pushing the progressives work on cap and trade, while a West Virginia coal mining town, whose lives depend on the coal industry, can get a story about what the progressives are doing to help Unions. And that’s not all, local elections will have coordinated opportunities for progressive messages that support the preferred candidate. Arianna Huffington has already announced Patch and its election value is a big part of her plans, when she announced the sale she said:
Remember my New Year’s resolution? It’s coming true — and it’s only the beginning of February. Let’s go down the checklist: Local? AOL’s Patch.com covers 800 towns across America, providing an incredible infrastructure for citizen journalism in time for the 2012 election, and a focus on community and local solutions that have been an integral part of HuffPost’s DNA.The day after the sale was announced Huffington doubled-down on her explanation of PATCH’s value, telling Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent, that PATCH.com is indeed a major part of her 2012 Election plans.
Huffington described her plan as “Jeffersonian,” and she says she plans to use AOL’s Web site Patch.com, a network of sites that cover local news at the granular level, as a vehicle for expansion modeled on HuffingtonPost’s 2008 “Off the Bus” coverage. “Off the Bus” made a splash when candidate Barack Obama was caught on tape suggesting that economically distressed voters are “bitter” and “cling to guns or religion,” and if Huffington has her way, she will oversee a massive increase in such coverage next year.
“We are going to dramatically accelerate this in 2012,” said Huffington, who discussed the idea on a conference call yesterday with Patch.com employees. “We will have thousands and thousands of people covering the election. Covering the Republicans. Covering the Democrats. Just being transparent about it.”
Huffington — who said high-level editorial staffing decisions were still being worked out — also provided the first clear glimpse of her plan to graft the HuffPo vision on to the AOL infrastructure. “Patch already has professional editors,” she said, adding that freelancers across the country would work with those editors “the way that the Huffington Post pairs young reporters with established editors. It’s something we can also do at the local level.”Although she claims “bi-partisanship” it is left to be seen whether Huffington, who built her business on being a progressive outlet would allow “Covering the Republicans. Covering the Democrats. Just being transparent about it” under her regime. One person who has doubt about it is Matt Lewis, one of the best columnists at AOL’s Politics Daily who announced today that he was leaving the company because of the politics of his “new boss” Arianna Huffington.
…I have no personal issue with Ms. Huffington, and that I am not a “Huff-hater.”…Obviously, I am more than happy to write for a mainstream news outlet where differing opinions are allowed to flourish, but I am less comfortable with the notion of being permanently affiliated with an overtly left-of-center (sometimes activist) outlet.
As a conservative (albeit, an admittedly iconoclastic one), it is vital that I maintain the freedom to call them like I see them. [my emphasis]Its true that AOL will give Arianna Huffington’s progressive news organization a wider berth both nationally and worldwide. But be aware, the expanded progressive reach created by the Huffington sale is only a small part of the story.Now imagine Huffington Post, an overtly left-of-center (sometimes activist) outlet running the news in 800 small communities. As even national politics is grass-roots oriented-based, Ms Huffington may very well have a significant impact in 2012 and elections to come because it is the small, hyper-local property, PATCH.com that will eventually be known as the big part.
Big Journalism
