Aol, Huffington Post | featured news

The good news for Arianna Huffington is that she gets to keep her share of the $315 million that AOL shelled out for her website. The bad news is her duties as editrix of the once-mighty Web conglomerate are being scaled back. Way back.

The talent exodus continues at AOL. The latest to give her notice, according to Business Insider, is TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde. Harde, a former News Corp. executive who joined TechCrunch five years ago, had stuck around after the site's founder, Michael Arrington, left in September after being stripped of his editorial duties in a very public confrontation with AOL editor in chief Arianna Huffington.

The understanding was Arianna provided the platform, I provided the content, and the hope was (on my part anyway) that at some point the combination of the two would land me a paying gig, or up my profile (or in the case of people I know, up their consulting fees and/or land them publishing deals) etc.

A freelance writer who successfully sued newspapers and magazines for copyright infringement will file a class-action lawsuit against the Huffington Post and AOL on Tuesday that seeks compensation for hundreds of unpaid contributors to the online publication.

Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone will become a "social impact" strategic adviser for AOL, as part of its broader integration with online news site the Huffington Post. He will stay at Twitter.

The discussions with Michael Wolff's Newser are said to have faltered after the Huffington Post-AOL deal raised questions about the acquisition price.

AOL made some management changes ahead of its integration of the Huffington Post, appointing Jon Brod as chief operating officer of the new Huffington group and saying David Eun would depart.

In the wake of AOL's deal to buy the Huffington Post, some marketing executives are expressing concerns about the liberal-leaning nature of the website and its potential to taint the broader AOL brand.

The deal would give AOL a major presence in journalism, demonstrating the company’s intention to rely more heavily on online advertising.