Arianna Huffington discussed The Huffington Post’s role in journalism”™s “golden age” and the importance of health in a speech at Manhattanville College on Wednesday.
“The world of media has truly been transforming,” Huffington said.
Huffington, an author and entrepreneur, was the first in the school’s inaugural speaker forum series, Castle Conversations. The chairwoman, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group spoke at Reid Castle on the college’s campus in Purchase. The event was sponsored by MasterCard and Entergy, and hosted by Leonard Lopate of WNYC.
- Arianna Huffington at Manhattanville College.
Originally from Greece, Huffington is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of 14Â books. She has been named to Time magazine”™s list of the world”™s 100 most influential people and the Forbes most powerful women list.
The Huffington Post, the blog and news site Huffington launched in 2005, won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She said the site, which will turn 10 years old in May, has become a new platform for journalism.
“Anyone with anything interesting to say can say it,” she said. “That’s kind of the magic of the platform, you never know who you’re going to meet.”
Anyone from the pope, to a scientist to a teenager can post on the site, she said. Recently, a mom”™s blog post about overusing the words “hurry up” with her daughter sparked a national conversation, which Huffington said happened because so many people could relate to the topic.
“Self-expression has truly become the new entertainment,” Huffington said. “More and more people don”™t just want to consume news, they want to tell their own story.”
The Huffington Post is known for publishing guest blog posts, welcoming reader conversation and even for more “low-brow” content like celebrity stories. Yet, the site also supports traditional journalism. Reporters are working on long-form stories and the site has international bureaus. Huffington said the future of journalism is the convergence of traditional and newer methods.
One traditional notion Huffington is trying to change is “if it bleeds it leads.” The blog still covers crises, scandals and crashes but also gives attention to do-gooders and human-interest stories. Huffington said journalism should not only expose what is happening but also celebrate what is happening. She said people are more likely to share positive news than negative news.
“We want to give our readers an accurate picture of the world,” she said.
The Huffington Post has developed a specialization in wellness, something that is personal to Huffington. After a collapsing from exhaustion a few years ago, she realized she needed to get more sleep and to reconnect with herself, she said.
In a healthy living section, the blog covers topics about wellness such as meditation, yoga and the importance of sleep, issues Huffington promotes in her new book, “Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom and Wonder.“
The wellness section is a monetization opportunity, Huffington said, because brands want to be associated with those topics and want to sponsor content. She said her site has “huge thought leadership” in the subject.
She said science is starting to support what has been known for years, like that working on too little sleep is not only ineffective but also the equivalent of being drunk. Huffington said that while many people, especially men, brag about their ability to function on little sleep, it is unhealthy. She said she now gets eight hours of sleep about 95 percent of the time.
Sleep deprivation is becoming an epidemic, she said. In the Huffington Post offices, there are two nap rooms that are always full, and the office is opening a third.
Aside from sleeping, waking up is also a significant moment, Huffington said. Even though The Huffington Post has a mobile app, Huffington does not want readers to look at it first thing in the morning. Instead people should take deep breaths and think about what they want from the day, rather than what the world wants from them, she said.
“There”™s a reason our best ideas come in the shower; it”™s the only time we”™re not with our phones,” she said.
The site will continue to expand internationally, she said. Every country”™s version of the American website has original content and some translated stories. Each international edition also has a “what’s working” section about the country, titled in its native language.
In the sit-down portion of her talk with Lopate, who asked about competition like BuzzFeed, Huffington said, “I don”™t think that looking at competition is the way to grow.”
The next speaker in Manhattanville”™s series is former CBS News anchor Dan Rather on June 24.
