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RedState vs HuffPo

By: Mike Krempasky (Diary)  |  February 11th, 2011 at 04:09 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Well, we’ve seen enough articles over the past week that we can’t stop reading about AOL’s remarkable acquisition of The Huffington Post – at a pretty significant $315m price tag.

First, I have to say that the capitalist in me needs to genuinely congratulate Ms. Huffington. To turn her website into the pageview and influence juggernaut it’s become shows real internet acumen. Through a savvy combination of headline-seeking, and SEO, she leveraged thousands of unpaid volunteers – many of them desperate grateful for any bit of exposure they could get for key underreported news stories like: how vaccines cause autism and updates on Katy Perry (PHOTOS!). Well done.

I’ll admit – I never thought it had a real chance of success. When it launched, I remember asking myself, “who actually gives a crap about what Julia Louis-Dreyfuss thinks about legislative politics?!” How wrong I was, apparently.

But now that the dust has mostly settled from the big sale, something interesting has emerged – some pretty widespread liberal discontent at Ms. Huffington’s payday. My favorite, of course, is the complaint of those like the Freelancers’ Guild:

We call on Ms. Huffington to live up to the ideals she so earnestly professes and share some of her profits with the people responsible for the Huffington Post’s 117 million unique visitors each month.

Hear, hear!

You know, it brings to mind a funny story given all of the hyperbolic bile that’s been flung at this site and its leadership – especially by members of that wronged class of HuffPo sweatshop bloggers…

When RedState was sold back in late 2006 (alas, for far, far, far, far less than $315m), the founders of RedState took more than ten percent of the GROSS purchase price to distribute to the contributors and editors whose efforts had been (and remain) so key to the site’s success. Not only that, Eagle also made clear their interest in not just keeping our superstar Mr. Erickson engaged – but key volunteers as well.

I’m sure those enjoying the windfall at HuffPo have plans at least as generous as those of us right wing crazies here at RedState.

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  • streetwise

    The panache, cachet and glam of Huffpo are their own reward!

  • kachina30

    Went down the tubes…hahaha

    • tamib

      my heart just breaks……ok, enough compassionate conservatism.

      Schadenfreude to the nth degree. There is something simply satisfying reading useful idiots complain they were used as indentured servants.

      • Common_Cents

        While they wait for Uhbama to create a government job for them, and pay off their school if they join Uhbama’s army, and give them free health care.

    • mbauer

      http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/the-economics-of-blogging-and-the-huffington-post/

      If you write crap in a flooded market like huffpo, or even if its good but in a flooded environment, you really aren’t that big of a deal

  • streetwise

    The panache, cachet and glam of Huffpo are their own reward!

  • IJB
  • JadedByPolitics

    CRAZY purchase. I rarely paid attention to AOL, now I know not to pay any attention to them period.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    Then it would have to be invented. The Huffers are a lonely and zealous group, they need someplace to go for affirmation.

  • sharonmcp

    live up to is, what’s ideal for Arianna Huffington.

    She and Michael Moore are the worst kind of Liberal anti-capitalist – they’re hypocritical Liberal anti-capitalist who make millions of dollars for decrying capitalism.

  • bk

    The list of these sorts of lefties is long unfortunately: Soros, Lewis, Bing, Streisand, Redford, etc.

  • kowalski

    Don’t you understand that’s the best way to really make money? You become the biggest profiteer by railing *against* the system and courting the lefty children, their professorate hangers-on and the other disaffected, while standing up on Bill Maher’s program and talking about how the idea that anyone can become a millioniare in America is a lie, while becoming one of the richest men in the hemisphere.

    That’s how Michael Moore has made his entire fortune. He figured out how to capitalize on the angst he created himself. He’s a parasite.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    I shall refrain from quoting the snappy comeback.

  • izoneguy

    Obama was lambasting business people that they must spread the wealth.

    All the HuffPo bloggers should quit.

    They can start their own blog and call it “Post Huffington”.

    Then AOL has paid almost one-third of a billion dollars for nothing.

  • emmi

    Amazing how the left hates capitalism except for the uber wealthy of their group!Those lemming bloggers are blind!Such cash for such trash,amazing!

  • earlgrey

    those HuffPo enthusiasts. Hopefully it might open some eyes.

  • kestrel

    I think the way RS was transitioned shows not only gratitude to contributors, but recognition and respect for the greater purpose of the site in ensuring that this greater purpose continues to be pursued. (Selling it in this way also demonstrates that the owner did not consider himself the center of the universe.) By contrast, Leftists tend to use and discard things ? including people.

    It is no surprise that Arianna’s underlings are howling. What would be a surprise is if they saw themselves ? mirror-like ? in her actions, for this is precisely how they treat the communities they ?organize? and all those whose savior they pretend to be. Such self-recognition would be a Damascus Road experience.

  • Marcus_Traianus

    I believe the last straw was HUFFPO posting pictures of you, Erick, streiff, Dan, et al lighting Cubans with $100 bills.

    It just does something to a person’s psyche when you work hard, writing your fingers to the bone, gratis and then when a payday comes, everyone is like- Marcus who?

    The creativity just drained right out of me. I am now that guy on the corner of Bowery and Houston holding a sign “WILL WRITE FOR FOOD”.

    Yeah, and I heard about the Lamborghini Gallardo too… Bastards.

  • runner12
  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    Right out of LaupNoring Driveway!

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    Jar Jar Gabor. I spit up my coffee.

  • acat

    but it’s a start…

    I’m not expecting AOL to know what to do wtih this acquisition any more than they knew what to do with Time-Warner…

    Mew

  • Flagstaff

    “share some of her profits with the people responsible for the Huffington Post?s 117 million unique visitors each month.”

    If Obama didn’t mean exactly that, what did he mean?

    To the person who wrote that (a member of the AFL-CIO, it appears), I must point out that it’s not 117 million for the HuffPo. It’s 25 million. The remainder were already looking at AOL properties.

    But izoneguy has a good point. They don’t even have to start a new rag. The interesting ones could bring their pictures of Katy Perry over here. We could even have our own Page 6.