Huffington Post, à la française

Posted by Hannah Vinter on January 23, 2012 at 7:57 AM

Le Huffington Post, a French edition of AOL's popular news, blogging and aggregation site, The Huffington Post, was launched today in collaboration with Le Monde and Les Nouvelles Editions Independantes.

At a press conference held at Le Monde's headquarters in Paris this morning, Arianna Huffington, president and editor in chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, promised that the new edition would offer the HuffPo's trademark mix of original reporting, aggregation, bloggers and commentators.

However, Huffington stated that although the "architecture" of Le Huffington Post would be imported, the site would be "rooted in French culture" and that it was "absolutely essential" that the local journalists set the agenda.

There will still be some connections between Le Huffington Post and its American cousin. Huffington stated that her media group had already employed a "couple dozen" translators so that stories could be converted into English and French and shared on both sides of the Atlantic. But despite this exchange, Huffington stressed that "the editorial teams are completely different".

The Huffington Post already has non-US editions in the UK and Canada, but today marks the first launch of a non-English-language version of the site. It is also the first produced in partnership with established media groups. The collaboration is supposed to combine the Huffington Post's successful platform with Le Monde's editorial resources. LNEI, which has a co-controlling stake in Le Monde Group, will also contributes original content, and all three companies are shareholders in Le Huffington Post.

Huffington will soon launch more European sites using the same model: a Spanish edition is due to go live at the end of March in partnership with El Pais and an Italian edition in collaboration with Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso is also underway.

Huffington said that she foresaw the launch of "many, many more" foreign language sites. She declared that the HuffPo was seeking partners in Germany, Brazil, Greece and Turkey.

Anne Sinclair, TV journalist and wife of the former managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss Kahn, has been named editorial director of the French edition. Huffington said she thought Sinclair was a good match for Le Huffington Post thanks to her early experience with digital journalism and her history of reporting on a wide range of subjects.

Sinclair's appointment has been controversial due to arrest of her husband for allegedly assaulting a chambermaid in a New York hotel last year. Although the charges were dropped, the incident led to Strauss-Kahn's resignation from the IMF and ended his hopes of being elected as the Socialist candidate in France's presidential elections this year.

When questioned about her husband and her editorial stance, Sinclair stressed: "I don't mix public and private life". Huffington added that there would be "no conflicts of interest that aren't going to be transparently treated".

The editorial team of Le Huffington Post will be made up of eight journalists, headed by editor in chief Paul Ackermann. David Kessler, director of the magazine Les Inrockuptibles and administrator and director general of LNEI, will serve as the publication's director.

It remains to be seen how the Huffington Post's partnership with established media organisations will affect both parties. In the past, tensions between the HuffPo and traditional media have run high, as the news aggregator has been accused of grabbing traffic away from its rivals in the media establishment.

At the press conference today, Huffington insisted that the expansion of the site would benefit other news sites by driving readers to the "best of the web" and amplifying the voices of others.

Sources: Press conference, Huffington Post (1) (2) Editors Weblog (1) (2) New York Times