HuffPost

HuffPost (The Huffington Post until 2017; often abbreviated as HuffPo) is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy eating, young women's interests, and local news featuring columnists. It was created to provide a progressive alternative to the conservative news websites such as the Drudge Report. The site offers content posted directly on the site as well as user-generated content via video blogging, audio, and photo. In 2012, the website became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. Founded by Andrew Breitbart, Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, the site was launched on May 9, 2005 as a counterpart to the Drudge Report. In March 2011, it was acquired by AOL for US$315 million, making Arianna Huffington editor-in-chief. In June 2015, Verizon Communications acquired AOL for US$4.4 billion and the site became a part of Verizon Media. In November 2020, BuzzFeed acquired the company. Weeks after the acquisition, BuzzFeed laid off 47 HuffPost staff in the U.S. (mostly journalists) and closed down HuffPost Canada, laying off 23 staff working for the Canadian and Quebec divisions of the company. The Huffington Post was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet, blog, and an alternative to news aggregators such as the Drudge Report. It was founded by Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti. Prior to this, Arianna Huffington hosted the website Ariannaonline.com. Her first foray into the Internet was the website Resignation.com, which called for the resignation of President Bill Clinton and was a rallying place for conservatives opposing Clinton. An early Huffington Post strategy was crafting search-engine optimized (SEO) stories and headlines based around trending keywords, such as "What Time Is the Super Bowl?" In August 2006, The Huffington Post raised a $5 million Series A round from SoftBank Capital and Greycroft.