Report: HuffPo Employees Flee AOL

After "Brutal" "Awful" "Worst Few Weeks"
From Glynnis MacNicol, The Business Insider

"HuffPo used to be such a supportive place, where we were all in it together," one person we spoke to said, "but it's turned into a place of 'no' at Aol." 

Aol has brought in a "weird corporate culture," we were told, which perhaps is not surprising considering the fact they are such a large corporation.  However, this person added "Aol is a company that is desperate and acting like it."

Things did not start out badly.  By all accounts many HuffPo employees were pretty excited by the merger and there was a general sense Aol was buying the company for a reason.  However, it soon became clear Aol was "not interested in bringing HuffPo's way of doing things to Aol."

One of the people we spoke to conceded a lot of the current problems are rooted in typical growing pains.  As anyone who has worked for a company that experiences quick growth or success knows the road to expansion can be bumpy.

But a lot of the resentment also appears to be rooted in the sense that the HuffPo staff was brushed aside.

One person we spoke to noted that the shift in power structure was immediately noticeable.  When the newly formed Huffington Post Media Group moved into Aol HQ at Broadway and 9th we're told all the glass offices were given to newly hired New York Times reporters while the HuffPo employees -- "the people who made the $315 million for her" -- remained on the open floor.

Another insider, however, tells us the set up was intended to keep the office layout for HuffPost people similar to the open seating "news room" configuration at the former SoHo office.

Either way the role the New York Times appears to be playing in the new HuffPo Media Group can't be understated. By the sounds of it there are three competing cultures at HuffPo now: Aol, HuffPo, and the New York Times.

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