Commentary

Suit Against HuffPo Claims Site Would Have Sold For $105M Less Without Unpaid Bloggers

From the moment AOL said it had acquired the Huffington Post for $315 million, it seemed likely that the site's cadre of bloggers would regret having contributed to the company for free.

Today, one filed a class-action suit against AOL and the Huffington Post for deceptive business practices and unjust enrichment. "TheHuffingtonPost.com has been unjustly enriched by engaging in ... the practice of generating enormous profits by luring carefully-vetted contributors with the prospect of 'exposure' (which TheHuffingtonPost.com deceptively fails to verify), to provide valuable content at no cost," states the complaint, filed by freelancer Jonathan Tasini in U.S. District Court in New York.

Tasini, who has unsuccessfully run for the Democratic nomination to Congress, says in the lawsuit that he personally wrote more than 216 pieces for the site. Additionally, he says, he publicized the posts he authored on Twitter and Facebook at the site's request, resulting in "substantial internet traffic to TheHuffingtonPost.com."

The complaint additionally alleges that absent the contributions by unpaid bloggers, "TheHuffingtonPost.com would not have been an attractive merger target and would have sold for at least $105 million less than the merger price."

It's not surprising that Tasini -- and other bloggers -- feel taken advantage of now that the site has been sold. Still, it seems unlikely that a federal judge will order the Huffington Post to retroactively change the terms of the site's deal with its writers.

2 comments about "Suit Against HuffPo Claims Site Would Have Sold For $105M Less Without Unpaid Bloggers".
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  1. Steven Threndyle from media tent, April 12, 2011 at 7:23 p.m.

    Is this the same Tasini who successfully sued the NYTimes and won - maybe he's hoping to catch lightning in a bottle a second time...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Tasini

  2. Chuck Lantz from 2007ac.com, 2017ac.com network, April 12, 2011 at 7:26 p.m.

    Add my vote to Paula Lynn's comments.

    No one was forced to write for HuffPost for free. The actual value of many thousands of websites is in the unpaid contributions by users, whether those contributions are articles, posts in comments section, or photos in gallery websites. Should they all expect a piece of the action if the site is sold? If so, I'm gonna be RICH!

    (Along those same lines, MediaPost, my invoice is in the mail. 10% discount if paid within 30 days)

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