Huffington Post does sports...

...not sure what to think:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sports/

 

Yes, now sportswriters around the country can see their work ripped off at HuffPost!
I think this is a joyous day for all!

 

Hey...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lupica/we-still-love-a-good-stor_b_352862.html

 

If it gives a few of us jobs, I'm all for it...

 

Except the Huff Post Arianna-gets-rich model seems to be not to pay, but you get the chance for "exposure and future opportunities", the same words you always see on the horrible writing/editing jobs on craigslist.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-haimoff/how-the-huffington-post-c_b_231719.html

http://gawker.com/5402649/the-huffington-post-unveils-its-new-local-strategy-unpaid-bloggers

 

Wow, with the money that place generates, I figured they'd at least pay well... Shows what I know...

 

So I guess I can stop waiting for the sports editor interview?

 

This has been the big hole in their effort to be a mainstream news outlet. I actually prefer their index-page presentation to some of the other sites that just pile up linked headlines on top of each other. (Pictures breaking up large blocks of text to make things easier for the reader? Who knew?)

As long as they're linking to other sites' original works and only presenting their own paid-for work or wire copy on their own site, which seems to be their MO in their other aspects, this should be good for them.

 

Is this his first column for this? Really? "I write books. They're good books. For kids. I'll bet your kids will like them. Here's what they're about ..."

 

A former HuffPo editor told me he had to quit after a year due to burnout. And this is someone with a newspaper background who has been through all the industry BS we've all been through.

 

I scrolled past about 10 of the HuffPo sports columns and clicked on two. They were full of crap. I'm not going back.

 

Working for no pay seems, and often is, terribly stupid. but, i did write for a HuffPost city off-shoot last year, for free, writing columns, and those columns helped me get a much better, paid job. i worked hard on them, I only did maybe a dozen (whenever I had the time) and actually did some reporting, so it wasn't all bloviating.

it was an unusual situation, for many reasons, but in the end, HuffPo gave me a decent medium (they must pay a ton for search engine optimization) and it paid off. The editor I dealt with was cool too.

That being said, this sports site looks pretty lame now. But if they utilize Dave Zirin and find some new voices, it could be good.