• Germany edition
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Huffington Post sets sights on Germany

Published: 2 Nov 11 16:15 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20111102-38599.html

The US news and opinion web portal Huffington Post is planning to launch an German-language edition within the next six months, it was revealed this week.

The announcement was made by Jimmy Maymann, an executive with AOL Huffington Post Media, in an interview with German media news site Meedia.de.

The Huffington Post is ready for internationalization,” Maymann told Meedia.

The site founded six years ago by author and commentator Arianna Huffington has already started an international expansion. It is launching a French version this month, and already has sites in Canada and Britain. It is also mulling moves into Italy, Spain and Turkey.

Maymann told Meedia that the German operation will likely consist of about a dozen employees, while its content would be supported by advertisers and be free to readers.

Maymann also said that the German market may be ripe for tech-focused blogs like Techcrunch, which has been acquired along with The Huffington Post by US media giant AOL.

“I have no doubt that Techcrunch might work in Germany,” he said. “It’s a fantastic brand.”

The Huffington Post has been controversial in the United States because it generally does not pay its many bloggers. Critics have accused the website of driving down the market for journalists.

But since its introduction about six years ago, the website has been phenomenally successful, with traffic numbers rivalling the New York Times. AOL acquired the The Huffington Post earlier this year for $315 million.

It was reported in August that US daily Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch's media empire News Corporation, is also planning to introduce an online German-language edition at the end of this year.

The Local/mdm

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Your comments about this article:

17:51 November 2, 2011 by Landmine
Not that great a paper in my opinion....
22:28 November 2, 2011 by wxman
"Zsa Zsa" Huffington (listen to her speak some time, if you don't know what I mean), is another big self-promoter who's not very good at business. She should find something else to do.
22:30 November 2, 2011 by pepsionice
Just the obvious, this is a marginally profitable news site. They are already in serious financial issues in the US....yet they expand? On what capital? You'd have to have a minimum of fifteen employees to run a bare-thread operation....which makes no sense, unless someone is funding their whole base.

Then you get around to who will be reading your site. Germans are an entirely different group of people on news. They don't just jump to new organizations that appear out of nowhere for their news. Huff.de? Whoever is funding this vehicle....is doing this at a loss, and that's fairly comical to the average German.
22:40 November 2, 2011 by ovalle3.14
Lothar Matthäus, they're out to get ya!
08:10 November 3, 2011 by milguy
She doesn't have to worry about any serious financial issues in the US - she is financed by George Soros.
12:59 November 3, 2011 by LiberalGuy
I thought all the issues of finance and capital were explained in the article (see AOL) and for someone not good at business $315,000,000 (again in the article) is pretty good return on a start up company. As for whether it will be a success or is a good news outlet. That's debatable.
14:55 November 25, 2011 by MrMooochy
Is there a similar website / news site such as this for ex-pats from Europe / Canada / USA residing in India? I am considering a job offer in India and moving from Germany to the Delhi area for at least three years, would be great to find a similar website such as this for ex-pats living in India.

Many thanks in advance.
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