Kara Swisher: HuffPost-AOL Deal Means 'News Is An Exciting Area And It Always Will Be' (AUDIO)

Kara Swisher called into NPR Monday morning and said that AOL's acquisition of the Huffington Post proves that news is a valuable business area.

"The Huffington Post is very good at creating a very exciting aggregation play in news, and they've started to do original journalism on the site," she said. "What [the deal] does say is that news is an exciting area and it always will be. It just depends on how it's going to be distributed."

Swisher also said that the Huffington Post has moved beyond left and right.

"Arianna is such a lightning rod in so many ways," she said. "But she has actually been leaning against, if you've noticed lately, she's been on the attack against the Obama administration of late. You never know quite where she's going to go. So even though it started as a sort of counter to the Drudge Report, which was the right leaning website, I think it's sort of evolved into a more central kind of thing where there's a lot of debate going on."

LISTEN:

Comments

[TheSpeechIsFree]

10:51 AM on 02/09/2011

how many of the unpaid writers are going to be willing to continue to work for AOL for free? maybe half?

[KsWrangler]

07:02 PM on 02/08/2011

"News is and exciting area and always will be"

Yes, yes it is. Paylin is not news. The divorce tab is not news. Pop-health, pop-science, pop-religion, gossip are not news. The fluff on AOL is not news.

[AuContrairian]

03:07 PM on 02/08/2011

I'm so sick of the catch-phrase "Beyond Left & Right," which this publication has rendered completely meaningless. Can you please get rid of it and stop pretending?

[JISantiago]

01:11 PM on 02/08/2011

If the moderating criteria of late is anything to go by, even moving to the centre will be a welcome change. But, I fear it is not going to be the case.

In her interview the other day with PBS, Arianna, to the surprise of many of us, declared that HuffPost is neither Left, Right or Centre! There in lies the changing trend of HP.

Another frightening prospect: AOL may charge a fee for access to HP like Rupert Murdoch does to some of his media websites!

Has the time has come for us, who are proud to call ourselves the Left or Progressives and to this day thought we had a friend or a friendly outlet in HP, to start looking for a real greener pasture?

I don't know. As the cliche goes, only time will tell.

[datenutloaf]

12:44 PM on 02/08/2011

OK

Announcement made.

Let's see some improvements :

[amd02148]

11:31 AM on 02/08/2011

Quite a few people have lost fans, people are just starting to leave already.

[levresamant]

08:10 AM on 02/08/2011

Another Orderly Loss.

[MrNativecolor]

07:44 AM on 02/08/2011

my post has been deleted. point made. farewell HP..

[MrNativecolor]

07:37 AM on 02/08/2011

This is very discouraging news. AOL is a relic. I stopped utilizing AOL 25yrs ago! Their blogs and comments were infested with disgusting right wing vitriol. Yahoo very much comes to mind for starters. Sad, sad news.

[Tazzie]

10:36 PM on 02/07/2011

Beyond left and right? Is that why so many threads about tea party faves go into lockdown?

[fishin4u]

10:23 PM on 02/07/2011

"News is an exciting area and always will be".
Here on Huff Post it is always presented from only one point of view.
Any story that does not fit with the political ideology of the Lib/Progressive is never reported.....

FISH............

[Amalek]

10:03 PM on 02/07/2011

I wonder if the intense moderation of the past few weeks was in anticipation of this deal, or whether it is how they intend to foster "a lot of debate".

[IfIonlyknew]

10:27 PM on 02/07/2011

It really stinks when they have 100 in the que.

[datenutloaf]

12:43 PM on 02/08/2011

......or 1500------

[ljkcan]

10:44 PM on 02/07/2011

Or stiffle debate.

[sherwoodforest]

09:41 PM on 02/07/2011

Merge with Money! is what the fine print says- not merge with vision.
Arianna plays it both ways here- this is going to bring Huff post to more people? REEeally?!
Ka-ching is all I hear.
If the Obama administration did something like this- I know what Arianna's post would read; "Sell Out!" or worse.

[lendiggy]

07:58 PM on 02/07/2011

http://www.infowars.com/aol-and-huffington-team-up-to-provide-perfect-blend-of-sanitized-news-gossip/