AOL is going to ruin the Huffington Post

News that the Huffington Post would be purchased by AOL for $315 million traveled fast, almost as fast as my interest in the site disappeared.

I’ve been reading the Huffington Post for the better part of two years now, and the thing I loved most was the blog’s off-the-cuff, freewheeling style. It wasn’t really journalism; it was just a great place to find an interesting story. The site has an obvious liberal bias, but I probably found and read more stories about popular science and culture on the site than I did political articles. It was an excellent place to find interesting stuff. It wasn’t the highest form of journalism, but it was informative and enjoyable.

Yet, I’m writing about it in the past tense. The site still lives, but it’s dead to me. By selling itself to AOL, the HuffPost has given up its mantle as king of maverick media. Obviously the site came into existence because of big money. Arrian Huffington wasn’t a company, and the site’s attitude reflected that. It was disjointed and rough. Sometimes it was blatant liberal propaganda and you could see that, but it was lively and fresh. It was the first mega-blog site to rival its print and broadcast competitors and that’s something.

Now AOL, the king of the Internet dustbin, has used 40 percent ($315 million) of its cash to purchase the Huffington Post, a blog that makes $10 million a year. More than just being angry about the change of leadership, I’m upset that Arianna Huffington would take the deal in the first place. It’s not like the Huffington Post was a startup with no money. Huffington is on the Cleveland Show for crying out loud; she’s got plenty of money.

When I read the HuffPost, there was an implication that I was reading something radical and untamed, something so very un-corporate. When I read that AOL had purchased the Huffington Post, I felt betrayed. I wanted to intern at the HuffPost, and now I’m not sure if I’d be getting the experience I wanted there. In an interview about the merger, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong called AOL “the anti-corporation.” Based on the recent New Yorker article that revealed 75 percent of AOL customers are continuing to pay for dial-up when they have no need for it, AOL sounds pretty corporate.

The HuffPost ran so many stories that exposed corporations, I can’t imagine the AOL masters would be too happy with that. Without the edge and the sass, the HuffPost would be just another blog, and to Armstrong, the HuffPost is just going to be page views and cash flow.

We’ll try to remember you for the things you were, HuffPost, and not the sad husk of your former self you’ll soon become.


E-mail: thommill@indiana.edu