Huffington Post launches Twitter edition
Interesting move by The Huffington Post as it ups its social media creds with the launch of a dedicated Twitter edition of the site across its 19 news and comment sections.
The move adds to its social news idea it introduced with Facebook Connect last year and the introduction of sponsored Tweets on some areas of the site.
The Twitter Edition of the site offers breaking updates manually tailored to each section on the Huffington Post with the front page showing headlines followed by a list of the top Breaking News Twitter accounts and up-to-the-minute tweets from each HuffPo channel.
On HuffPost Impact: The Twitter Edition for instance visitors will be able to follow the latest in the world of philanthropy, from top Twitter accounts such as @philanthropy, @tonic and @hardlynormal as well as @huffimpact.
“We’ve also created a Twitter list of some of the world’s top nonprofits, working domestically and around the world. Follow UNICEF, World Vision USA, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and more to learn about all the latest in the world of nonprofit fundraising,” HuffPo said.
The launch is part of HuffPo’s drive to double its revenues over the next year although initially advertising is taking a back seat as the site encourages readers to use the new area.
HuffPo chairman Ken Lerer told PaidContent that the idea was to produce an entirely separate edition with the same kind of content as the main site, but crafted specially for Twitter users.
“We think it’s reasonable to assume that there will be more and more Twitter users; we think it’s here to stay. As more users get accustomed to it, this will be a way that users will increasingly seek their news from our site.
“I can see people coming to the main site and going to the Twitter editions. Eventually, I can see people just going to the Twitter edition instead of the main Huffington Post sites and verticals. Ultimately, it will end up being as significant an addition to The Huffington Post as we’ve made to date,” Lerer said.
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[...] This could hit some companies more than others. Think about The Huffington Post, which launched Twitter edition of its site last month. [...]
[...] If Ms Huffington did sell the price tag would be significant and far outstrip the $100m that Yahoo! paid for Associated Content. The Huffington Post raised $25m in December 2008 giving it a valuation of around $125m. At that time it had around five million uniques. It now has five times that traffic attracting generating in excess of 25 million uniques a month and has led the way with projects such as linking its news to social media and launching a Twitter edition on the its site. [...]