Huffington Post Union of Bloggers: 'The AOL Deal Will End Very Badly For Everyone Concerned'

We had reached out to the Huffington Post Union of Bloggers to ask what would happen to the site now that the National Writers Union had ended its boycott against the HuffPost. The response we got, from someone just signing his/her name as "HPUB," cleared up a few things: despite being "affiliated" with the National Writers Union local that was leading the boycott, the HPUB isn't going to be affected. In short, the HPUB has bigger concerns than the boycott (though it believes, too, that the bloggers should have been paid). The HPUB's problem is that the Huffington Post isn't what it used to be. "HPUB" also called the AOL sale a "coup" and "shameful" and called the HuffPost "ruined forever." Them's fighting words! Here's the full response, after the jump: Well Rachel, HPUB no longer has any connection to NWU and months ago we told them the same thing Mike Elk is saying now: that the boycott (and lawsuit, in our opinion) were not thought through very well and had major issues that the Writers' Union had and still has failed to address. HPUB was formed before Ms. Huffington made headlines with her AOL coup. We were unhappy with Huffpo's direction long before the big, shameful cash out. Paying bloggers is not our raison d'etre and never was, although we support the idea in the general sense and we called on Ms. Huffington to divide some $25 million of her spoils between the 9 000 or so principal bloggers who created all the value for Huffpo and made it into a global brand, while she essentially duped them into believing she was running a non-profit or an un-profitable enterprise, hence the utter indignation of all the bloggers. Finally, we still predict that the AOL deal will end very badly for everyone concerned, that AOL and Ms. Huffington will be worth substantially less when this is all said and done with and the Huffington Post as we knew it before the election of 2008, is ruined forever. It is now a tabloid.

Fishbowl

Huffington Post Union of Bloggers: 'The AOL Deal Will End Very Badly For Everyone Concerned'

Rachel Kaufman

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Rachel Kaufman