We see that Arianna Huffington has made her blog pay off:
I got an email from Tim Armstrong (AOL Chairman and CEO), saying he had something he wanted to discuss with me, and asking when we could meet. We arranged to have lunch at my home in LA later that week. The day before the lunch, Tim emailed and asked if it would be okay if he brought Artie Minson, AOL’s CFO, with him. I told him of course and asked if there was anything they didn’t eat. “I’ll eat anything but mushrooms,” he said.
The next day, he and Artie arrived, and, before the first course was served — with an energy and enthusiasm I’d soon come to know is his default operating position — Tim said he wanted to buy The Huffington Post and put all of AOL’s content under a newly formed Huffington Post Media Group, with me as its president and editor-in-chief.
As a person who pays his mortgage one knock on a strange door at a time I must congratulate Arianna on making her site pay off. Granted she was already doing good personally but it’s always nice to see someone do OK.
There is one side thought that instantly comes to mind however. When you are buying something like the HuffPo you are not only buying the structure and the “writers” so to speak, you are also buying the commentators.
It’s axiomatic that you can’t hold a blogger responsible for the comments of individuals on a site and most people simply don’t have the time to police comments to the degree that is necessary for proper decorum, but AOL is a large company. A VERY large company with a fair amount of employees and the manpower to stay on top of that kind of thing.
There have been cases when the Huffpo has made it a point to keep comments closed to make sure some of their more, shall we say enthusiastic leftists don’t embarrass them. With “civility” now the code word of the left and with AOL brand at stake, they will now find themselves of necessity diligently policing the site, and if they don’t well I’m sure there are bloggers on the right with a lot more time on their hands than me who regularly read the Huffpo who will take the time to find this kind of stuff and helpfully point it out to the new owners at AOL.
So AOL I hope you like your purchase, but now remember you OWN it, all of it.
Update: Stacy notes the relative value of his blog. No word on what DaTechGuy on DaRadio might be worth, but then again I’m just looking to make enough to pay the bills every week.
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