Leave it to seasoned mogul Barry Diller to have the smartest take on the cashiering of TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington: AOL "destroyed" TechCrunch's voice, the IAC chairman said, and editorial director Arianna Huffington should have been told to "shut up and go back to your room" when she raised concerns about Arrington's ethics.
After a protracted back and forth over his fate, editor Mike Arrington is truly finished at TechCrunch, the influential website he started in 2005 and sold to AOL almost exactly one year ago. AOL says Arrington "decided to move on" to running his venture capital fund, relinquishing any role at TechCrunch or AOL.
Uber nerd website ArsTechnica has one. Amazon is guiding web savvy writers toward them. And now even the electronic newspaper of the future, the Huffington Post, has one. Meet the so-called "book," heir apparent to the future of media.
A Byzantine drama unfolded this weekend over whether Mike Arrington will be fired from TechCrunch, the tech blog he started. He's already been ousted as editor, supposedly because he's starting an investment fund, and that's a huge conflict of interest. But the ethical concerns are bullshit. This is a power play by Arianna Huffington, plain and simple.
AOL chief Tim Armstrong could certainly be forgiven for handing off control of the company. The problems at AOL were largely his creation, and recently growth largely that of his lieutenant Arianna Huffington. Pressure from the press is mounting. And, we hear, he has political ambitions.
Professional designers have finally had it with the Huffington Post always asking for free shit all the time. You're a publicly traded company now, HuffPo. You can design your own damned logo for politics coverage.
In your mild Wednesday media column: HuffPo is coming for your teenagers, AOL's iPad magazine looms, Meredith Vieira is not an insane morning person, media redesigns of the moment, and journalists are good at everything.
In your oppressive Monday media column: the Oprah to HuffPo career path, The New Yorker is digitally famous, the 48-hour magazine returns, PBS expands to England, and Peter Lauria goes to Reuters.
In your sultry Wednesday media column: HuffPo's scapegoat gets her job back, WSJ reporters mildly defend themselves, Tablet magazine redesigns, a military reporter reflects on death, and Jim Romenesko is the new Yelp.
In your finally Friday media column: Rupert Murdoch apologizes, Andrew Ross Sorkin gets a TV gig, the AP stylebook is wrong, Google encourages you to read, and Bob Schieffer is still among the living.
The Huffington Post indefinitely suspended a young blogger today for rewriting too much of someone's news article. This is pretty ridiculous, given HuffPo's systematic, officially-sanctioned approach to rewriting too much of people's news articles. Just ask a HuffPo veteran.
In your wacky Wednesday media column: the phone hacking fallout predicted, a financial bright spot at the NYT Co., Tina Brown's crazy cover fails, and HuffPo afflicts the British isles.
In your mordant Thursday media column: Arianna Huffington offers concierge service, layoff rumors at Meredith (confirmed), Tina Brown on snark, the Guardian's digital future, and Greta Van Susteren's embarrassment of the day.
In your misty Monday media column: Michael Wolff vs. David Carr continues, as does the HuffPo's hiring spree, as does the growth of the class action suit against HuffPo, Gay Talese gives the NYT props, Time magazine has an apocalyptic "brand image," and AMI is for sale.
Sure, we'd heard there was a civil war at AOL following the Huffington Post merger. But we never imagined we'd be hearing tales quite so evocative of schoolyard bullying. Team HuffPo is apparently the meanest clique at AOL Junior High.
