Here’s my suspicion of the new darling of Internet media:
- HuffPo editors use Twitter and other real-time & mostly social media to find out what’s trending.
- Then they grab a writer to jot out a quick story or grab an AP brief to see can get in on the action.
- HuffPo.com’s formidable SEO capital catapults them to the top of searches for that topic.
- They get zillions of ad impressions for their advertisers.
- HuffPo’s leading lady isn’t po’–she’s rich.
Good for her.
Bad for the internet.
I’m not the first to comment on this, but I was just infuriated to see a tweet in my stream that pointed to an article about a man who drive down the freeway with his wife on the hood of his car.
Proclamation
Internet publishers: you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Either have editorial discipline and focus and accept reasonable margins from loyal and interested readers OR make a ton of money gaming the system and be out of business soon.
