CASE STUDY: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

INTRODUCTION Established in 2005 by , Kenneth Lerer, Jonah Peretti and , The Huffington Post is now regarded as one of the top thought leaders in journalism - the go-to hub for all news and news-related items in the . Prominent news outlets, from to The Wall Street Journal, enquire daily to be featured on The Huffington Post while The Huffington Post’s own employed journalists across the country report on the news, events and happenings 24/7.

THE CONCEPT: A PUBLISHER With full-time employees, front page The front page editors spend each day editors and bloggers contributing to The sieving through the content to find and Huffington Post, the online news source share the best articles - the most timely utilizes both created and curated and interesting pieces on the web. content to be at the forefront of their field. Curated content, especially, allows The Huffington Post to remain alert on the latest news - gathering, collecting SEARCH and displaying information from all over the web. This method, ultimately, helps propel The Huffington Post into thought leadership. ORGANIZE THE EXECUTION: CONTENT CURATION SHARE The Huffington Post utilizes content curation to search, find and communicate the latest trends and news to the world. They run AP and Reuters content on their site, and their front page editors In this way, the Huffington Post ensures it- receive e-mail enquiries from other self as the cutting-edge of news, by al- publishers, editors, reporters, publicists ways being timely, informative and enter- and organizations asking for their pieces taining. They use curated content to stay to be featured on The Huffington Post. on top of events and happenings.

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Thought leadership is about being innovative and idea-driven in a particular field. The Huffington Post’s idea was to revolutionize content curation to obtain a steady stream of reliable articles from prominent news leaders. From CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS News to C-SPAN, they all recognize The Huffington Post as a thought leader and want their content to be featured on their site.

For being one of the top media outlets in America, The Huffington Post was acquired by AOL in 2011 for $315 million. A year later, in February 2012, Arianna Huffington revealed the site’s stats as proof of The Huffington Post dominance in the news media.

Additionally, in April 2012, Forbes and Bitly revealed that The Huffington Stats: Case Study Post is the top media channel in 23 States, beating out Fox News and CNN. Comments in the last month: 6 million Constructing a digital map of the Comments on a single day: 253,331 United States of America, Forbes and (Jan 25, 2012)

Bitly showed that The Huffington Post New commenters signing up per day: was the United States’ most prominent 5,500 news outlet. Social referrals in a month: 21.6 million (December 2011) As a result, structured around original content, bolstered by curated content Facebook referrals in a day: 1.4 million and upheld by bloggers, The Huffington (January 4, 2012) Post is one of the great thought leaders in online journalism. Content curation, Editors and reporters added: 170 in particular, ensures that the news outlet has a constant stream of reliable, New bloggers: 9,884 informative and prominent news for their wide and diverse audience. Blog posts in last year: 61,688

With three international editions Stories published per day: over 1,000 launched in the past year (Canada, UK, France) and three more slated in 2012 HuffPost e-books published: 4 (Quebec, Spain, Italy), The Huffington Post is sure to expand and take the HuffPost sections ranked #1 in unique visitors in world by (another) storm. their category, according to comScore: 3 (Huff- Post Politics, HuffPost Green & HuffPost Gay Voices)

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