Aquisição do Huffington Post pela AOL coloca edição brasileira no topo das prioridades

Leio no Digital & Mídia:

A criação do "HuffPost Brazil" está entre as prioridades de Arianna Huffington para a nova fase de seu site de notícias, agora em parceria com a gigante AOL . Arianna já foi trabalhar no novo escritório nesta segunda-feira e publicou em seu Twitter uma foto ao lado de Tim Armstrong, CEO da AOL. Com a compra do "Huffington Post" pela AOL por US$ 315 milhões, ela ocupará a presidência do recém-formado "The Huffington Post Media Group".
Segundo a própria Arianna publicou no site, "lançar as seções internacionais no Huffington Post (começando pelo HuffPost Brazil)" é uma das cinco áreas em que a página quer investir. As outras quatro prioridades são: a expansão das seções locais, ênfase em serviços, maior produção própria de vídeos e novas seções como carros, música e jogos.

O anúncio da compra do Huffington Post foi feito durante o Super Bowl, em Dallas, em uma entrevista a uma repórter do "All Things Digital" (do mesmo grupo do "Wall Street Journal"). Pouco depois, um comunicado foi liberado no site do AOL.
A AOL anunciou nesta segunda-feira a aquisição do site de notícias The Huffington Post por US$ 315 milhões. A operação criará um grupo de mídia com base combinada de 117 milhões de visitantes por mês apenas nos EUA. A AOL afirmou que pagará US$ 300 milhões em dinheiro. O restante, segundo o "New York Times", será pago em ações. O negócio deve ser concluído no final do primeiro semestre deste ano ou no início do segundo.


Cf. também:

• Compra do site de notícias Huffington Post pela AOL
• Compra do Huffington Post pela AOL não altera ranking de internet nos EUA agora
• Em breve, Huffington Post no Brasil

Em entrevista colocada ontem online no All Things Digital, o CEO da AOL,Tim Armstrong, e Arianna Huffington falam sobre a aquisição do Huffington Post pelo gigante da Internet.



Mais sobre o assunto:

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• BoomTown Will Have What Greg Coleman’s Having: HuffPo Ad Sales Head Scores Big Bucks Twice From AOL’s Armstrong

O artigo que Arianna Huffington publicou ontem no site, a propósito do negócio. Para ler na íntegra:

I've used this space to make all sorts of important HuffPost announcements: new sections, new additions to the HuffPost team, new HuffPost features and new apps. But none of them can hold a candle to what we are announcing today.
When Kenny Lerer and I launched The Huffington Post on May 9, 2005, we would have been hard-pressed to imagine this moment. The Huffington Post has already been growing at a prodigious rate. But my New Year's resolution for 2011 was to take HuffPost to the next level -- not just incrementally, but exponentially. With the help of our CEO, Eric Hippeau, and our president and head of sales, Greg Coleman, we'd been able to make the site profitable. Now was the time to take leaps.
At the first meeting of our senior team this year, I laid out the five areas on which I wanted us to double down: major expansion of local sections; the launch of international Huffington Post sections (beginning with HuffPost Brazil); more emphasis on the growing importance of service and giving back in our lives; much more original video; and additional sections that would fill in some of the gaps in what we are offering our readers, including cars, music, games, and underserved minority communities.
Around the same time, I got an email from Tim Armstrong (AOL Chairman and CEO), saying he had something he wanted to discuss with me, and asking when we could meet. We arranged to have lunch at my home in LA later that week. The day before the lunch, Tim emailed and asked if it would be okay if he brought Artie Minson, AOL's CFO, with him. I told him of course and asked if there was anything they didn't eat. "I'll eat anything but mushrooms," he said.
The next day, he and Artie arrived, and, before the first course was served -- with an energy and enthusiasm I'd soon come to know is his default operating position -- Tim said he wanted to buy The Huffington Post and put all of AOL's content under a newly formed Huffington Post Media Group, with me as its president and editor-in-chief.
I flashed back to November 10, 2010. That was the day that I heard Tim speak at the Quadrangle conference in New York. He was part of a panel on "Digital Darwinism," along with Michael Eisner and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.
At some point during the discussion, while Tim was talking about his plans for turning AOL around, he said that the challenge lay in the fact that AOL had off-the-charts brand awareness, and off-the-charts user trust and loyalty, but almost no brand identity. I was immediately struck by his clear-eyed assessment of his company's strengths and weaknesses, and his willingness to be so up front about them.
As HuffPost grew, Kenny and I had both been obsessed with what professor Clayton Christensen has famously called "the innovator's dilemma." In his book of the same name, Christensen explains how even very successful companies, with very capable personnel, often fail because they tend to stick too closely to the strategies that made them successful in the first place, leaving them vulnerable to changing conditions and new realities. They miss major opportunities because they are unwilling to disrupt their own game.
After that November panel, Tim and I chatted briefly and arranged to see each other the next day. At that meeting, we talked not just about what our two companies were doing, but about the larger trends we saw happening online and in our world. I laid out my vision for the expansion of The Huffington Post, and he laid out his vision for AOL. We were practically finishing each other's sentences.
Two months later, we were having lunch in LA and Tim was demonstrating that he got the Innovator's Dilemma and was willing to disrupt the present to, if I may borrow a phrase, "win the future." (I guess that makes this AOL's -- and HuffPost's -- Sputnik Moment!)
There were many more meetings, back-and-forth emails, and phone calls about what our merger would mean for the two companies. Things moved very quickly. A term sheet was produced, due diligence began, and on Super Bowl Sunday the deal was signed. In fact, it was actually signed at the Super Bowl, where Tim was hosting a group of wounded vets from the Screamin' Eagles. It was my first Super Bowl -- an incredibly exciting backdrop that mirrored my excitement about the merger and the future ahead.
By combining HuffPost with AOL's network of sites, thriving video initiative, local focus, and international reach, we know we'll be creating a company that can have an enormous impact, reaching a global audience on every imaginable platform.
Remember my New Year's resolution? It's coming true -- and it's only the beginning of February. Let's go down the checklist: Local? AOL's Patch.com covers 800 towns across America, providing an incredible infrastructure for citizen journalism in time for the 2012 election, and a focus on community and local solutions that have been an integral part of HuffPost's DNA. Check.
Original video? AOL's just finished building a pair of state-of-the-art video studios in New York and LA, and video views on AOL have gone up 400 percent over the last year. Check. More sections? AutoBlog, Music, AOL Latino, Black Voices, etc, etc, etc. fill gaps in HuffPost's coverage. Add all that to what HuffPost is doing with social, community, mobile, as well as our commitment to innovative original reporting and beyond-left-and-right commentary, and the blending will have a multiplier effect. Or, as Tim and I have been saying over the last couple of weeks: 1 + 1 = 11.
Far from changing our editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, this moment will be for HuffPost like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet. We're still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we're now going to get there much, much faster.
I am deeply grateful first of all to Kenny, whose insights and vision were instrumental to what we created together, and who will continue to give me advice and wisdom in the years to come. This deal would also not have been possible without Eric Hippeau, who together with Greg Coleman and his great sales team, monetized what HuffPost had created. Thank you to our truly amazing tech team, led by our CTO Paul Berry, and our passionate and gifted editorial team, led by our editor Roy Sekoff, who has been there since before Day One, and our managing editor Jai Singh. Their great work can now continue on a much bigger platform. And, of course, thank you to our HuffPost community, whose engagement, enthusiasm, loyalty, and support have been the foundation of HuffPost's growth.
We can't wait to begin the ride.

When HuffPost Met AOL: "A Merger of Visions" by Arianna Huffington

Alguns rankings da Internet no EUA para ter em conta:

OS 50 MAIORES NOS EUA

O número de visitantes únicos nos 50 conglomerados de internet mais acessados nos EUA, no consolidado de dezembro de 2010 (Fonte: comScore)

1. Sites do Yahoo!: 181,219 milhões
2. Sites do Google: 179,252 milhões
3. Sites da Microsoft: 176,963
4. Facebook: 153,886 milhões
5. AOL: 111,938 milhões
6. Ask Network: 94,353 milhões
7. Sites da Amazon: 91,120 milhões
8. Glam Media: 87,751 milhões
9. Turner Digital: 87,721 milhões
10. CBS: 86,013 milhões
11. Viacom: 84,456 milhões
12. Sites da Wikimedia Foundation (como o Wikipedia): 77,753 milhões
13. Apple: 75,090 milhões
14. eBay: 70,436 milhões
15. New York Times Digital: 69,657 milhões

Outros da lista:

21. Walmart: 51,375 milhões
22. craigslist: 51,017 milhões
24. Weather Channel: 44,208 milhões
26. ESPN: 40,158 milhões
29. Sites da Gannett (como o USA Today): 37,935 milhões
38. Disney: 30,740 milhões
40. Best Buy: 29,327 milhões
47. LinkedIn: 26,577 milhões
48. NBC Universal: 26,444 milhões
50. Reader's Digest: 26,280 milhões

OS MAIORES DO MUNDO

As dez maiores companhias de internet do mundo, em número de visitantes únicos somados em dezembro de 2010. (Fonte: Nielsen)

1. Google: 378,600 milhões
2. Microsoft: 327,474 milhões
3. Facebook: 272,395 milhões
4. Yahoo!: 236,763 milhões
5. Wikimedia Foundation (inclui a Wikipedia): 156,094 milhões
6. Amazon: 144,267 milhões
7. eBay: 138,090 milhões
8. Interactive Corp.: 133,132 milhões
9. Apple: 124,549 milhões
10. AOL: 104,008 milhões

SITES DE NOTÍCIAS

Número de visitantes únicos em dezembro de 2010 (Fonte: comScore)

1. Yahoo! News Network: 94,509 milhões
2. New York Times Digital: 69,657 milhões
3. CNN Network: 67,845 milhões
4. MSNBC: 48,721 milhões
5. The Weather Channel: 44,208 milhões
6. Sites da Gannett (como o USA Today): 37,935 milhões
7. AOL News: 35,017 milhões
8. WeatherBug Property: 32,594 milhões
9. Jornais do Tribune (como o Los Angeles Times): 24,666 milhões
10. Huffington Post: 24,542 milhões

MERCADO DE BUSCAS

Participação de mercado dos sites de buscas em dezembro de 2010 (Fonte: comScore)

1. Sites do Google: 64,3% / 11,716 bilhões de buscas no mês, uma alta de 3% sobre novembro de 2010
2. Sites do Yahoo!: 18,8% / 3,434 bilhões de buscas, número estável
3. Sites da Microsoft: 12% / 2,183 bilhões de buscas, uma alta de 9%
4. Ask Network: 3,2% / 575 milhões de buscas, uma queda de 1%
5. AOL LLC Network: 1,7% / 312 milhões de buscas, uma queda de 5%