Monday saw a major shake up stemming from a big merger. For over five years, the Huffington Post has been a liberal website providing news and opinion articles. The site has been run by Arianna Huffington since it began over half of a decade ago, but now it is under new ownership.
Monday, it was announced that America Online (AOL) is purchasing the Huffington Post. Huffington sold her website for $315 million to AOL.
The website is one of the most popular left wing and moderate sites going today. Its audience ranges from people in the United States to people all around the world.
Tim Armstrong of AOL told reporters that the goal is for the merger to “create a next-generation American media company with global reach.”
Ever since they fell off as the number one internet provider in the United States, AOL has faded in the minds of Americans, but now they have a new medium in the form of the popular news website.
According to Kara Swisher of “All Things Digital,” “AOL doesn’t really stand for anything. It doesn’t have a brand or an image, and they’ve just bought themselves the most valuable profile on the Internet.”
Arianna Huffington will continue to serve as the editor of the publication. She will also be the president of the media division of the new company. Her website will also feature resources from other AOL owned entities.
Swisher said that the Huffington Post was a growing company that was at a crossroads of either selling or having an IPO. She said, “this was the best option and it’s a lot of money.”
Huffington assured her readers that the website will not be overhauled. She said that the contents of her website would only increase and that the articles and posts that readers like are still going to be there.
It is expected that the website will retain its left-center political tones.
The newly merged company has hopes of seeing 117 million unique readers every month in America and 270 million worldwide. The goal is for the Huffington Post to be the most read media outlet in the world.
With the new merger, AOL is finally back in the limelight as it can now lay claim to being the parent company of one of the most popular websites in the world. What lays ahead for AOL and the Huffington Post cannot be for certain, but if all things go as planned, the merger should prove to be profitable for everyone involved.
$315? It sold for $315? Do you have an editor job available?