{"id":77439,"date":"2020-09-29T01:21:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T22:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/verizon-scrambling-to-unload-huffpost-as-losses-mount\/"},"modified":"2020-09-29T01:21:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T22:21:04","slug":"verizon-scrambling-to-unload-huffpost-as-losses-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/verizon-scrambling-to-unload-huffpost-as-losses-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"#Verizon scrambling to unload HuffPost as losses mount"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Verizon scrambling to unload HuffPost as losses mount<\/strong>”
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\n Verizon has been quietly scrambling to unload HuffPost as it grapp<\/a>les with continued losses at the left-leaning news<\/a> and culture website, The Post has learned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The telecom giant \u2014 which acquired the site formerly known as the Huffington Post as part of its $4.4 billion purchase of AOL in 2015 \u2014 has approached multiple digital-media<\/a> companies during the past few months in a bid to get the property off its books as losses accelerate due to the coronavirus, according to sources close to the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Verizon has pitched the property to prospective buyers including Thrillist-owner Group Nine Media, Rolling Stone publisher Penske Media Corp., Bustle Digital Media and J2 Global, insiders said. Those media outlets declined to comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vox Media, which owns New York Magazine and <\/span>operates news and political site Vox as well as tech news sites Recode and The Verge, is among the media outlets to have held talks to acquire HuffPost. Some sources have described those talks as \u201cserious,\u201d but sources <\/span>close to Vox, while acknowledging they have taken a look, say they are not interested in buying the property.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even Group Nine \u2014 whose CEO is Ben Lerer, the son of Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer \u2014 took a pass, according to a source close to the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis thing loses so much money,\u201d a digital media executive with knowledge of the financials said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a mess, I wouldn\u2019t touch it with a 10-foot pole. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way you can make money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

People briefed on the talks said Verizon, headed by CEO Hans Vestberg, appears to be seeking to offload HuffPost to a buyer willing to take a knife to the site\u2019s high operating expenses \u2014 a potentially daunting process that would require going head-to-head with the site\u2019s union and enacting \u201cmassive layoffs,\u201d sources said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While HuffPost brings in between $45 million to $50 million a year in revenue, its annual expenses are between $60 million and $70 million, two sources said. And with advertising slammed by the pandemic, it will likely bring in $40 million this year, the sources said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Verizon is looking to maintain a minority stake while the buyer \u201cdoes the dirty work\u201d of cutting costs and dealing with severance packages, one source opined.<\/p>\n

He estimated that roughly one-third to a half of HuffPost\u2019s staff would need to be cut to enable any buyer to \u201cbreak even\u201d on the deal. According to the company\u2019s masthead, HuffPost has roughly 200 employees. <\/span>HuffPost\u2019s editorial staff is unionized with the Writer\u2019s Guild of America East. <\/span><\/p>\n

Other challenges include a \u201ctoxic culture\u201d among staffers that\u2019s plagued by \u201cdistrust in the organization\u201d and \u201c<\/span>in-fighting\u201d over how \u201cleft\u201d the publication should be, one source said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWho wants to buy ads on the thing? Nobody. If Verizon can\u2019t make money on it, who can?,\u201d the source said. \u201cAnd, you have to fire half the people? There goes the traffic. The brand means nothing anymore and it\u2019s ultra-partisan.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded by Arianna Huffington in 2005, HuffPost began as a counterpart to conservative sites like Drudge Report. In 2016, Lydia Polgreen took the reins as top editor from Huffington, who left to build a wellness and lifestyle company, Thrive Global. In March, Polgreen left to head up content for Spotify\u2019s podcasting company, Gimlet Media. The company has yet to name Polgreen\u2019s replacement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Verizon didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment on Monday.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Verizon scrambling to unload HuffPost as losses mount” Verizon has been quietly scrambling to unload HuffPost as it grapples with continued losses at the left-leaning news and culture website, The Post has learned.\u00a0 The telecom giant \u2014 which acquired the site formerly known as the Huffington Post as part of its $4.4 billion purchase of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/HuffPost.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[73245,72323,73393,70584,73394,73395],"class_list":["post-77439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-9-28-20","tag-digital-media","tag-huffington-post","tag-mergers-acquisitions","tag-verizon","tag-vox-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}