The sale of the Huffington Post and the reaction of contributing bloggers

The decision Arianna Huffington made to sell her online publication to AOL, for $315 million, was very controversial. Right after the announcement the Guardian was quick to inform readers why Huffington Post bloggers were accusing her of being a “sell-out.”

The main reason bloggers were outraged by the AOL deal is because they were providing content to the Huffington Post and were unpaid. Although I feel these bloggers deserve some sort of compensation it is most likely easier said than done. Determining how much they should be compensated for each blogger for the previous 6 years would be challenging.

At the end of the day, the bloggers agreed to have their work published without receiving any pay. It is unfortunate that the Huffington Post ended up being sold to a major corporation, but at the time each blogger made their contributions they must have had some reasoning behind it. They also must have believed in the publication itself and wanted to see it succeed.

In my opinion the reason beyond many bloggers goes beyond not being compensated for their work. Many bloggers were contributing to the publication because of Huffington’s political ambitions. The Guardian article discusses the fact that “AOL’s corporate ownership would see it tone down the site’s liberal campaigning.” Once the political message of this site was threatened bloggers questioned what and whom they have been providing free content for.

A Lehigh University journalism professor is quoted saying, “She has made a fortune on the back of freelance writers working for nothing, but there is a political betrayal too. She betrayed the ideals of a lot of people who were happy to work for nothing because they thought it was for a cause."

Huffington claimed she never intended for the site to be solely political. Although many disagreed with this claim and viewed it as “a deliberate rewriting of the past,” there is no way the Huffington Post would be nearly as successful as it is now if it had only been a political site. 

While I can imagine this buy out being very frustrating for unpaid bloggers, at the same time I feel that the sale of the Huffinton Post was not extremely unexpected. While this is a news outlet made by Huffington it is also a business venture she made as well. Huffington was clearly interested in making a large profit off of this business venture.

Again I am not agreeing that these bloggers should remain uncompensated for their work, however, I think bloggers should keep in mind that they were willing to take a risk in providing the Huffington Post with free content.