The Huffington
Post launched its’ eighth international edition in Munuch, Germany yesterday.
This site is an outcome of the recent partnership with Hubert Burda’s Tomorrow
Focus Media, which is one of Germany's fastest-growing digital media companies,
a release by The Post states.
This is the Post's
fifth edition in Europe, following the UK, France, Spain, and Italy. Arianna
wrote, "HuffPost Deutschland will be led by editorial director, Cherno Jobatey,
who for 20 years was the host of the popular morning show ZDF-Morgenmagazin,
and will be both a journalistic outlet and a blogging platform for Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland."
HuffPost Deutschland
will be relentlessly covering politics, business, and economics, along with
stories that encompass everything from sports, technology, and food to media,
religion, and entertainment. On the occasion of the German launch, Arianna and
HuffPost CEO Jimmy Maymann joined the press conference in Munich's
Literaturhaus by Tomorrow Focus AG CEO Toon Boutin, member of the Management
Board at Tomorrow Focus AG, Christoph Schuh, Managing Director of Tomorrow
Focus Media Oliver Eckert, as well Jobatey and Matthes.
In Arianna’s blog post, she highlighted, "HuffPost
Deutschland is launching at a time of transition and disruption in the German
media. Blogging is still in its early stages here, which means the
opportunities for growth are tremendous for HuffPost, which is a media hybrid
-- a combination of a journalistic outlet that last year won a Pulitzer Prize
for its investigative reporting and a powerful platform bringing thousands of
voices that otherwise would not have a platform into the global conversation.
Our goal is not just to be telling the most important stories but to be helping
the people of Germany tell their stories themselves -- in words, in pictures,
and in video."
The Huffington
Post mixes traditional journalism with blogging and user commentary of the
digital age, according to dw.de. While many consider it the end of
journalism in Germany, others consider Thursday's launch as an effort by the US
media giant to foray into another European market and firmly stick its plans to
expand its presence in 14 countries by the end of 2014. According to Oliver
Eckert of the Tomorrow Focus Media, which publishes the German edition of the
Huffington Post, the website will open shop next in Brazil. The Huffington
Post's original concept will be adopted by the edition targeting markets in
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
According to dw.de,
by the end of 2013, 60 German newspaper publishers
want to introduce pay walls for their online editions. Oliver Eckert, publisher
of the Huffington Post's German edition said, "The Post's vision will be
clear. We welcome the digital transformation, without closing our eyes to the
problems." He further hopes that the German edition will turn a profit by 2016
at the latest. Three million Euros have been invested in the German edition and
the number of users should rise to 9 million a month. That would make the
Huffington Post, with its offices in Munich, the fifth largest news platform in
Germany.
According
to an earlier announcement by the Post last month,
The Post and Abril Group, one of Brazil's largest media conglomerate, announced
partnership and unveiled plans to launch the Brazilian edition soon. Jimmy
Maymann, CEO of the Huffington Post Media Group said, "This edition will
not only put HuffPost in its ninth country and fifth continent, but also will
land us at the center of one of the highest-growth regions in the world. Brazil
has more than 100 million Internet users, the 5th largest audience
in the world, and is growing fast – 7.6% annually through 2016 according to
e-marketer Research." The Brazilian edition of the HuffPost will join the other
40 editorial websites and almost 30 titles available for tablets that Abril
runs today.
By: Savita V Jayaram
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