During a visit to Montreal on Thursday, Huffington Post creator Arrianna Huffington spoke at an annual media event hosted by Infopresse. The publication focuses on advertising and marketing.
Huffington covered a number of topics such as print and how she believes it still has a place in this world, but it must evolve in order to stay afloat. She also commented on why she thinks the Huffington Post has done so well. Because of the way they engage the community, which she also believes is what has led to the success of Twitter and Facebook.
“Self expression is the new entertainment,” Huffington said. “That’s why editors and curators are more important than ever.
Another interesting topic brought up was about freelance bloggers and journalists. The journalists are paid, the freelance bloggers are not. Why is that? Because not paying for opinion has always been the company’s policy.
“We pay journalists very well, but not bloggers because we see blogging as something different,” she said. “Bloggers can blog where they want and when they want in exchange for distribution and comment moderation. Nobody forces people to blog on the Huffington Post.”
After reading her comments about bloggers not being paid and why, what do you think? Is that fair? Do you understand her reasoning behind it? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!
Considering that I blog for a living, I totally think bloggers deserve to be paid…but I think Arianna says it well – no one is forced to blog for HP. If you don’t like the thought of working for exposure instead of a paycheck, don’t blog for HP. They aren’t tricking anyone. There are benefits to blogging for free for a major publication, so I think it’s up to each blogger to decide whether or not it is worth it or not. For me, it’s not, but that doesn’t mean HP is doing something wrong.
I agree wholeheartedly, Alli. It’s not for me, but if someone can appreciate the exposure in lieu of cash, then more power to them!
In fact, self expression is one of the new entertainment with best support too 🙂
I have an MA in technical writing and I’m a blogger. The posts I write aren’t opinion, they are explanations, instructions, and tips/advice regarding industry standards and expectations. I’m not a journalist, but the articles I write can take up to three hours to craft when you consider research and distilling the information into scannable articles that new bloggers can digest and use immediately. By Arianna’s definition I wouldn’t be paid for that? I used to write for another major blogging site and I regularly spent hours on my weekly column because I was writing on technology. I had friends who also wrote for that site and they admittedly wrote “fluff pieces” (their words, not mine) that took no more than 30 minutes to crank out. We were all paid the same. I could have phoned in my articles, but I have a personal expectation of myself that doesn’t allow me to phone it in just because others can. Eventually I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and quit that job. I don’t think I’d be interested for writing for a site that doesn’t value hard-working bloggers enough to pay them. Let’s face it, if you’re good enough to write something for The Huffington Post, you’re good enough to be paid. I’ve never been a fan of the business model that allows one group to make money while they don’t pay their bloggers. In many cases the people making the money couldn’t make that money if they didn’t have the bloggers.
What a hypocrite. Arianna’s all gung-ho about opposing the exploitation of workers–except when it comes to her own. Then she’s all, “What? Pay them? Pah! Screw them! Nobody’s forcing them to be there.” Completely ignores the institutional power she has. Cares not to compensate workers for making her business a reality. HYPOCRITE.