Mashable! - AOL Puts Mainstream Media To Shame

With its $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post this week, a company best known for distributing free CDs has succeeded where mainstream media outlets failed: Spotting the potential of one of the web’s fastest growing media brands.

AOL, widely thought to be the imminent victim of a dying Internet dial-up business, now owns a property that may help define the future of news.

How big is The Huffington Post, exactly? A recent report from The Street put the upstart media company just behind The New York Times in terms of web traffic — and set to overtake the Gray Lady. The New York Times was founded in 1851; The Huffington Post began in 2005.

Is it pride, perhaps, that’s prevented many of the leading media brands from experimenting with aggregation, populist content and a blogging community that may at times appear amateurish?

That’s the topic of my CNN column this week.


Read the full column at CNN.com >>

More About: acquisition, aol, cnn, Huffington Post, media, social media

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