AOL bets that Huffington can save it from irrelevance

AOL bets that Huffington can save it from irrelevance Huffington, who founded the Huffington Post 6 years ago on a shoestring, has sold the news website to AOL for $315 million. AOL's Huffington Post purchase is one of several recent deals the business has made in a try to remain viable. AOL, which isn't really considered a reputable source of media, is hoping that Ariana Huffington will change that perception. It makes you question if AOL had to take out a personal cash loan to pay that price tag. AOL hopes Huffington reverses decline The Huffington Post/AOL deal is seen as a bold move that might save the tech dinosaur from extinction. There has been lots of success for the Huffington Post. Google and Facebook have been overshadowing AOL though. AOL has had a really hard time considering consumers have either decided the company is not necessary or is dying off. In 2010 AOL cut 2,500 jobs as ad revenue declined 29 percent from 2009. Fourth quarter earnings were down 26 percent. Hopefully by 2013, AOL can become profitable again, which it hopes to do with the Huffington Post. Huffington changes AOL writing Ariana Huffington created the Huffington Post as a liberal blog with a $1 million purchase. Today the Huffington Post has a staff of 200 and had $31 million in 2010 revenue. The Huffington Post started out aggregating news from more traditional news outlets. But as its audience has grown, Huffington has hired away journalists from news outlets for instance the NY Times and Newsweek. AOL, which has built a reputation as a glorified content farm, is betting that Huffington and the Huffington Post will counter that negative image. Huffington may have access to TechCrunch, web-syndication website 5min Media and Social press company Thing Labs with the deal as the new editor in chief of AOL’s new Huffington Post Media Group. Huffington details Ariana Stassinopoulos was born in Athens, Greece and earned an MA in economics at Cambridge University in England. In 1997 she got a divorce from Michael Huffington who was a San Francisco oil millionaire that she had married. Huffington ran as an independent candidate for governor of California in a 2003 recall election won by Arnold Schwarzenegger. She co-founded the Huffington post in 2005, which now claims 26 million unique visitors a month. Soon the AOL/Huffington Post deal ought to be closed. This spring is when it's expected to happen. Information from New York Times nytimes.com/2011/02/07/business/media/07aol.html?_r=1&hp Wall Street Journal online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704422204576130002551387710.html CNN Money money.cnn.com/2011/02/07/technology/aol_huffington_post.cnnw/