The Huffington Post Media Group (HPMG), which I should point out is owned by our parent company AOL, is to announce an acquisition today, along with some key stats, hires and new site launches. Kara Swisher obtained and published the press release.
HMPG has acquired Localocracy, an “online town common” where registered voters weigh in on local issues and come together to solve problems in their communities, using their real names.
According to the release, The Huffington Post has recruited its leadership team (founders Conor White-Sullivan and Aaron Soules, and tech lead Jay Boice).
According to Swisher, HPMG paid less than $1 million for Localocracy.
The Huffington Post is also launching four sites this week (Huff/Post50, HuffPost Gay Voices, HuffPost Weddings and HuffPost High School), the latest of 21 new verticals since the merger with AOL, which occurred last March.
In addition, HMPG says it has hired former NYT blogger Lisa Belkin as Senior Columnist; she’ll be covering parenting, work/life balance and family.
Finally, The Huffington Post says it has recorded its largest number of unique monthly visitors ever (37 million), and for the first time topped 1 billion page views.
The network also posted a record 5.1 million comments in August 2011.
The Huffington Post is a leading online news source founded by Arianna Huffington, Ken Lerer, and Jonah Peretti. Contributors include more than 3,000 bloggers—from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts—who contribute in real-time on a wide-range of topics. The site started as a politics blog, but now covers more than 20 categories, including media, business, entertainment, living, style, sustainable “green” living, world news, technology, nonprofits, college life, and comedy. It began launching local versions in 2008,...
Localocracy provides an online town common where registered voters, using real names, can weigh in on local issues.
AOL is a global advertising-supported Web company, with display advertising network in the U.S., a substantial worldwide audience, and a suite of popular Web brands and products. The company’s strategy focuses on increasing the scale and sophistication of its advertising platform and growing the size and engagement of its global online audience through leading products and programming. History of Aol: AOL was founded in the early 1980’s as Control Video Corp, with an online service, Gameline, for the Atari 2600 console. ...
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