AOL's purchase of HuffPo is good news for quality content

Despite the grim, cardboard-grey skies that have hung glumly over DirectNews HQ this week, the writing team have been cheered by the news of AOL's purchase of online newspaper, The Huffington Post.

AOL's CEO Tim Armstrong has already announced some changes, saying that he wants his editorial team to up their output and deliver on a number of key content targets over the next quarter.

Similar deadlines and demands also exist here at DirectNews, as in any news room, but it's encouraging to hear that The Huffington Post and AOL's content is targeting both quality and quantity.

While it's easy for some people to write off Armstrong's demands as simply wringing every ounce out of his team, it's understandable that as the news industry adapts to technological advances editors will expect writers to do the same.

A strong online editorial team should comprise those who can write quickly and effectively from wires, RSS feeds and other sourcing streams, but it's essential that fresh leads and exclusive comment is also gathered because unique content is almost essential to online success.

Our own in-house editorial team is made up of experienced writers that can comfortably produce a high volume of optimised content and we also have a reporting team that produces unique and exclusive comment.

However, quality content still has to be found and in order to do that publications must make sure their content attracts the roving eye of the search engines.

The Huffington Post seems to have an excellent understanding of the power and importance of search enhanced content and its writers are all well versed in how to attract search engines to their articles, which may go some way to explaining the $315 million price tag.

Of course, it can be very easy to become absorbed in chasing after search results and forget that you are simply trying to attract readers, but as search engines look to become increasingly conscious of quality content perhaps this will work in favour of respected online content providers who are looking to produce high quality, search-friendly content.

Ross McTaggart

Assistant Head of News Feeds