In the aftermath of the merger of AOL News and the Huffington Post, Huffington Post CEO Arianna Huffington sat down with Charlie Rose on Thursday to talk about the website’s new editorial vision and goals, which include increasing the number of monthly unique visitors and incorporating storytelling into reporting.
“I really believe that we can provide incredible service here,” Huffington said, as reported by her publication. “People have been leading increasingly unhealthy lives, you know, technology is becoming a master, so being in that space where we can actually be the place where that conversation can take place… is really important to me.”
Huffington says she’d like to continue doing what she’s been doing with her news site on a bigger scale and “with a lot more results.”
“We want a much larger platform, with 120 million unique visitors instead of 26 million unique visitors,” Huffington said. “The key here is to remain passionate and whether it’s original reporting, to base it on storytelling rather than just repeating data, and if it is at the local level, to focus on solutions rather than just problems, so there is a whole editorial vision around this, and that’s what is key… At the local level, we have people actually finding solutions, using their compassion and ingenuity to help each other. So if we can tell these stories, I think we can begin to recreate trust at the national level, too.”
Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, recently launched a website, TheColBuffington Re-Post as a joke response to the Huffington Post.
“Darling, I happened to cruise by your $300 million website and you know what I find? A whole lot of me,” Colbert said during a Wednesday episode of his show. “Including clips from my show on your site’s dedicated ‘Stephen Colbert’ page… Where’s my money, Arianna?…
Until the Huffington Post pays me for repurposing my content, I’m happy to announce my brand new website, the ColBuffington Re-post.”
[WATCH: Huffington talks about website vision]