The Honeymooners (AOL and Huffington Post)

Forbes ^ | June 27, 2011 | Jeff Bercovici

[bert]

What happens when you mix the ambition of Arianna Huffington with the desperation of Tim Armstrong? AOL shareholders will soon find out.

AOL Chairman Tim Armstrong seemed to find his ideal mate in Arianna Huffington. He needed someone to galvanize his drifting editorial division and give it a distinctive voice to woo readers and advertisers. She provided all that with The Huffington Post, one of the most successful publishing ventures of the last decade. Snip-- If Armstrong is AOL's last best hope, then Huffington is Armstrong's snip- Indeed, Huffington has been on an extravagant hiring binge for months, sweeping up journalists from the New York Times, USA Today, FORBES and elsewhere with some extraordinary pay packages, at least by the standards of journalism. The spree actually began last fall when she hired two editors from the Times, Tim O'Brien and Peter Goodman, both at salaries said to be in excess of $300,000 per year.

[bert]

This is a through exploration of the marriage of AOL and Huffington Post. The Author left AOL for Forbes and knows the players.

The juicy part is on the second page where the Huffington hiring of lots of cast offs from the recent blood baths at many big time papers is set against the firing of many AOL writers.

For Dinosaur Death watch fans, this is a glimpse of Lazarus a few months before his second passing.

[bert]

This is a long but very interesting piece

[abb]

[Dr.Deth]

Welcome to the new Democratic Party para(site)digm.

Get your guy in at the top. Shunt exorbitant amounts of dollars to politically connected hacks through incestuous hiring and acquisition. Kickbacks all around. Bleed company dry. Bankruptcy. If you can, bailout and repeat.

AOL, GM, Chrysler, Freddie, Fannie.

Ever watch Goodfellas? This is the standard business model of organized crime.

[bert]

Lest we forget

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