AOL announced today that they will acquire The Huffington Post for $315 million. Readers have responded passionately to this news and we’ve collected some responses below.
Founder and author Arianna Huffington will now supervise “all Huffington Post and AOL content, including news, tech, women, local, multicultural, entertainment, video, community, and more.” According to the release, the combined media company will have 117 million unique visitors and and 270 million worldwide.
Here’s more from the release: “The Huffington Post will continue on the same path we have been on for the last six years – though now at light speed – by combining with AOL. Our readers will still be able to come to the Huffington Post at the same URL, and find all the same content they’ve grown to love, plus a lot more – more local, more tech, more entertainment, more finance, and lots more video … By uniting AOL and The Huffington Post, we are creating one of the largest destinations for smart content and community on the Internet. And we intend to keep making it better and better.”
Edward Champion wrote: “This is catastrophic for writers. AOL has just created content feudalism, with writers as serfs and Arianna as vassal.”
Don Linn quipped: “Can’t wait to get my new Free Trial AOL CD in the mail so I can access all that great Huff’n’Puff content.”
Carolyn Kellogg wondered: “Aol buys HuffPo. Is it irrational for me to hope they upgrade their book coverage?”
Joseph Wallace concluded: “A business model that makes you worth $315 million, but is based on not paying your content providers, will not #savepublishing.”
Editor’s Note: This post has been updated over the course of the day.