Le Huffington Post Quebec is launched
Lots of chatter about Le Huffington Post Quebec today but I can’t find any stories about it except for this CP piece in English. OpenFile resorted to running a Storify.
I heard Ms. Huffington on CBC defending her policy of not paying bloggers. She kept saying bloggers are making a personal statement of their own free will and since it’s voluntary and “fun” it won’t be paid for.
She doesn’t understand – or more likely she chooses not to accept – the distinction between people expressing fragments of personal ideas and experiences on social media, and someone who writes a blog about a topic, whether they’re expressing considered opinion, doing original research, or curating news (as this blog does).
Not saying this blog isn’t fun, but a blog like this is not chiefly for self-expression. She’s maintaining a purely self-serving position, but there’s no surprise there.
Shawn 00:18 on 2012/02/09 Permalink
God, and she sold HuffPo to AOL for hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, that’s self-expression!
Ian 06:00 on 2012/02/09 Permalink
I heard her interviewed on the radio recently, and her stance was, “I’m not being paid to be here on this radio station and the radio station profits from me being here since it draws listenership but I benefit by having my views heard”…. uh, OK. It’s a pretty comical rationalization. Then again, there’s no shortage of people out there willing to work free for the exposure.