Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington addressed the American Society of Magazine Editors today at a luncheon in Midtown about surviving in the "brave new world" of media and, as we expected, Ms. Huffington had alot to say:
'Let's Have a Three-Way': Huffington said magazines no longer have to choose between "Ginger or Mary-Anne" — representing print or online, we assume — you can have both.
On unpredictable youth culture: She offered her daughter an intership at HuffPo; her daughter chose Vanity Fair, despite her insistence on watching Desperate Housewives exclusively online.
Magazines should keep their Web content free. "Don't be like the New York Times and move your best columnists behind a paid wall."
Find bloggers on your print staff, and move them online.
Put someone who "gets" the Internet, like MySpace.com founder Tom Anderson, to head up your online efforts, regardless of whether or not that person rolls in at noon, as Anderson is said to do.
If these people don't exist at your company, you find them at blogger parties, though "blogger parties are not glamorous."
"Radar would still be around if it just started online." Starting an online magazine is infinitely cheaper, "especially if you don't pay your bloggers."
It costs alot to monitor online reader's comments, but well worth it if you are creating community.
"Don't fall into the all-access" trap, which, in the case of political coverage, has been "detrimentental to truth-telling."
Bloggers are obsessive; mainstream media is not. "Major stories die on the front-pages of the New York Times." The two can live together.
The Huffington Post has a policy that if a blogger writes something inaccurate, they have to retract within 24 hours or they lose blogging priveledges. "Judy Miller wouldn't have been around long enough to go to jail."
Blogging by any means necessary: Larry David dictates his Huffington posts from the Curb Your Enthusiasm set; Arthur Schlesinger blogs by fax. "Any way is fine with me." Any way, she says, except the George Clooney way.
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Amanda Ernst
