The AOL Buyout of HuffPost

It a shame.

Now that a dotcom relic has spent a third of a billion dollars to buy Huffington Post it will cease to be an occasionally useful source for interesting, marginally reliable information.

AOL needs this deal to turn a profit since the rest of the company is a money losing pile of shit (it lost $8 per share last year). This is something that HuffPost reported on just last month. (Aside: I bet that last link disappears shortly.) A sign of how little faith Arianna has in the deal's financial success is that she is taking the buyout in cash, not stock.

AOL's need for profit means they will go to LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) with their content. There will be lots more Lindsey Lohan gossip and a focus (according to Arianna herself) on cars, music, and games. There will also be a lot less of anything boring (intelligent) or controversial (liberal). Prediction: In six months Huffington Post will be a slightly edgier version of TZM. Id est, mostly worthless.