Aggregation “too often it amounts to taking words written by other people, packaging them on your own Web site and harvesting revenue that might otherwise be directed to the originators of the material. In Somalia this would be called piracy. In the mediasphere, it is a respected business model.”
Bill Keller on the trouble with one form of aggregation

” ”
Arianna Huffington‘s response to the core problem, as laid out by Keller, that many have with her style of Aggregated Theft.

Yeah, Huffy attacked Keller personally, doing her very best FoxNews-ist taking of his comments out of context to fit her position and to distract from the core of what he was saying. Yeah, Huffy listed all the people she has purchased to hang in her storefront window while the crap in the backroom is what keeps her numbers up. Yeah, Huffy lies in her own defense, citing a Frank Rich column in 1999 that “praised the work of our reporters,” when in fact he cites one detail offered by a HuffPo journalist amongst dozens and simply cites the source… ya know, respectfully crediting information.

It says a lot of about Ms Huffington that she is willing to claim “praise” when none exists and links to the evidence of her misleading statement. She is that brazen and that reckless. After all, no one can touch her. She managed up brilliantly… to a company that has found new and shocking ways to slowly fail into oblivion year after year after year after leading the way to the wired world for the public two decades ago.

I don’t have much respect for Ms Huffington. I see her as a con artist. She’s obviously whip smart. But she uses her intelligence only to serve herself. Her deal with AOL is no different. But her behavior since the purchase by AOL has shown some cracks in her game face. Like I wrote… she doesn’t need to pretend as hard anymore. She’s already won.

Ironically, the “let them eat cake” response to her unpaid bloggers required some tightrope walking. She couldn’t admit that her idea of having people blog for free was not important to the future of the site’s revenues. It isn’t, really. She could pay the 20 – 50 (or pay them in charitable donations) that drive traffic and dump the rest and no one would notice. Providing a forum to be heard is of value to a writer who has no other such forum. And in the media world, not being paid and being paid insulting amounts have become a new norm.

Besides, Huffy has bigger fish to try to fry. She may have bit on her own con and now thinks she can compete with The New York Times. Hee hee. She’s like a Victoria’s Secret model thinking that because millions of men are desperate to pull off her often-seen panties, she can go to Broadway and do Shakespeare opposite McKellan. “But I’m so popular!!!” She forgets that when they do get those panties off, it’s the same bit of anatomy that every woman has. There is, indeed, a skill or a gift in drawing the attention of large numbers of other people. But it’s rarely a skill or gift that aligns automatically with other kinds of skills or gifts.

When people read The Huffington Post on a day like today or yesterday, it’s not for HuffPo reporting on the Japanese disaster. HuffPo is running the AP story combined with a gathering of reports from other media sources (aka watching on TV and reading outlets that have people on the ground).

Drudge is the same way. (MCN too.) Matt Drudge rarely deludes himself into thinking he is a real reporter or that he should have a staff of reporters. He aggregates. And even with a right wing spin and dubious taste in entertainment hacks, he does it fairly, in terms of the sources.

Keller writes, “Buying an aggregator and calling it a content play is a little like a company’s announcing plans to improve its cash position by hiring a counterfeiter.”

As an aggregator and content creator, I agree. Mostly. The ability of an aggregator to draw eyeballs by how they curate a world of information IS content of a sort. There is value created. And as is a fair argument, I think, when it comes to links – not building on actual words from actual stories as a way of building pages – that aggregators are critical to building readership for the originating source, be it the NYT or some tiny blog.

Huffington wants to tell people that she runs a news organization. And a small sliver of HuffPo is a news organization. Maybe 10% of her traffic… maybe.

Going to HuffPo as I write this and there is a headline, “HUFFPOST HILL – Doc Shows NFL Owners Plotted Lockout.” Classic. The story about the lockout… not by HuffPo. From Business Insider. But it gets worse, as the BI piece they link to doesn’t say a word about the NFL Owners plotting a lockout. It’s a piece about the NFLPA self-decertification that sites as sources Twitter and ESPN with no reporting of any kind and no real analysis either. So… the HuffPo headline for their “Huffpost Hill” column is for a story they didn’t write, is factually inaccurate about the story they content-grab from and link to, and that story they connect to is not a reported story either. So, on top of miseleading readers to get them into a story that they didn’t write, the entire thing comes back to some “journalist” watching ESPN and typing up what that network, which is paying its reporters to cover the story closely, is reporting.

It’s breathtaking.

And by the way, the New York Times assigned a reporter and wrote a story.

That’s what they do.

Of course, the New York Times has more than a little responsibility for overhyping HuffPo from the start… another irony. The fear level as we all move into the future, large and small, has made the con artists sexy to media. Going back to the earlier analogy, most people are thrilled with the notion of a world of people lusting for them… and very, very few of them actually want to seriously consider what millions of minds thinking of you in only an objectified sexual way really means. It’s gross. But it’s glamorous. But it’s disgusting. But fame is so exciting. Etc, etc, etc.

But once these people are built up, the NYT as responsible for the hype as anyone, the delusions of grandeur set it.

And that is when they usually choke and die (on a business level).

But as the Old Media gets weaker and the New Media grows, there is a meeting in the middle, for better or worse. The pressure to lower standards in order to build broader popularity is felt in all quarters, not just in those where there is willing leadership.

In some ways, this is a Golden Globes vs Oscar argument. The Globes has done great for itself… but it’s still minor in comparison to Oscar and can only thrive in the light bounced off of Oscar’s success. On the other hand, HFPA is 80soimething people sharing $10 million or so and Oscar is 6000 people sharing 4 or 5 times that. So who’s the sucker? Who’s the winner?

There are 315 million reasons to think what Huffy has built is real. There is no return policy for the guy who spent the money. The hundreds who lose jobs to Huffy’s ego will not get them back if her vision fails. And if AOL’s really lucky, Huffy will overinflate the entire company’s value, as she did hers, and they will sell to some even bigger schmuck for billions.

Meanwhile, the New York Times will still, day in and day out, make comparisons to HuffPo laughable, simply by doing the work of one of the most important news organizations in the world. It won’t ever get hot the way that HuffPo has. And they may embarrass themselves trying to do so. But the core will be there. And it will have a value greater than all the hype.

Snarling at Keller won’t ever change that, Huffy. You can’t ever win that legitimacy without doing the real – and expensive – work. And you won’t ever do the heavy lifting because you don’t have the inner strength to let anyone see you work. You’re all facade, no house. That doesn’t mean that facade building isn’t hard work. It can be… even if you aren’t mentally disturbed, like some. But you don’t won’t scream at Keller, “Respect this facade I built! I am the most powerful facade builder in the business!” You still want people to think there’s a whole house there behind those beautiful window treatments.

No wonder you’re so angry.

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