Arianna Huffington: 'I'm optimistic about the media -
even newspapers'
The Huffington
Post's founder on its new emphasis on lifestyle and wellbeing, life at AOL –
and leaning back like a cat
Jane Martinson and Mark Sweney
The Guardian, Sunday 1 June 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/01/arianna-huffington-post-optimistic-industry-lifestyle
As the finale to her week-long stay in London
While news and politics remains HuffPo's No
1 content category, with 40m monthly uniques in the US
"We will continue to be a politics and
news site that is No 1 in
the States and continues to grow everywhere," says Huffington. "We
are not in anyway detracting from that, but we are also going to continue to
invest a lot of resources and time in Third Metric messages." The Third
Metric – a third way of defining success, beyond the old metrics of money and
power – is an idea set out in her new book Thrive, which she launched in the UK
(at No 11 Downing Street, naturally, with George Osborne as host) during her
London trip.
HuffPo's UK editor-in-chief, Carla Buzasi,
was given the additional role of global director of lifestyle in January, and
it was announced last week that the site will work with four top London media
agencies to "introduce the Third Metric concept to their employees".
Not a few eyebrows have been raised at the prospect of cynical, hardboiled
media buyers being taught how to "make room in [their] lives for
wellbeing, wisdom, wonder and giving" at workshops including yoga,
massages, mindfulness sessions, "and even happiness coaching from
happiness and wellbeing activist Susie Pearl".
Huffington has been an evangelist for
getting enough sleep, turning off digital devices and reconnecting with family
and friends ever since a "wake-up call" in 2007 when she collapsed
from exhaustion at her desk and fractured a cheekbone. Yet anyone who thinks
that her 14th book is about kicking back and taking more time off fundamentally
misunderstands Thrive, and indeed Huffington herself.
Thrive is often described as the antithesis
to another book calling for women to make changes in their lives, Sheryl
Sandberg's Lean In. Yet Huffington frequently appears on platforms with the
Facebook chief operating officer, and Thrive's first endorsement is from
Sandberg. Huffington, so fond of pets that she devotes a chapter to "furry
friends with different benefits", uses an animal analogy to explain why
the books are similar. "It is so easy to misunderstand," she sighs.
"You also need to learn to lean back, as like a cat you need to lean back
in order to jump higher." So sleep and rest are "performance
enhancement tools", not an alternative to success but a way of achieving
it.
Asked if she's a feminist, Huffington – who
published The Female Woman in the 70s, slating the "brainwashing"
women's liberation movement – replies "absolutely". Thrive calls for
a "third women's revolution" to end male-dominated workplaces which
consider burnout "a badge of honour". Her own life, writing from home
when her daughters (now grown-up) were small but remaining ambitious enough to
set up her company, embodies the idea that women should be able to succeed
financially and work at home for a period while caring for children. Her model
of self-fulfilment still offers a marked contrast to the sisterly solidarity of
early feminists, of course.
One of the obvious objections to the book is
that it's all very well for a multimillionaire to write about needing to sleep
more when many women on low incomes struggle to put food on the table.
"The more you can take care of your own human capital, tap into your inner
strength and resources, the more resilient you will be," is all she will
say.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of Huffington
is that she made her millions off the back of unpaid volunteers. Indeed Google
her name and "unpaid bloggers" still comes up as the most common
search term. She is adamant that she has done nothing wrong: "This fails
to understand the nature of the internet and platforms," she says. No one
asks why Facebook won't share some of its IPO proceeds, she says, or why
contributors to Tumblr (sold to Yahoo for $1bn) received nothing. Asked why the
Post continues to use unpaid volunteers, she says: "I think it's because
we're the first media company to really elevate blogging. In 2005 people were
making fun of bloggers, saying they were people who couldn't get a job, sitting
in their parents' basements, but we brought in politicians and
celebrities." Besides, she says, look at the homeless teenage blogger
offered a place at Harvard and all those given TV shows or book deals. These
few examples will not be enough to satisfy the 9,000 who lodged a legal appeal
against the AOL deal.
She ducks a question about whether she
faces more criticism as a woman but says of Jill Abramson's departure as editor
of the New York Times, "there's no question that the language being used –
that she was 'brash', 'abrasive' – these are words almost exclusively used
about women. Men tend to be 'driven' and 'authoritative'. There's no question
that there is a double standard for women at the top. That language has
definitely been used about me over the years – that I am difficult or demanding
– absolutely."
There have been rumours about her departure
from AOL – she signed a four-year contract which ends next year – but she says
she intends to continue working with chief executive Tim Armstrong. "HuffPo
is a standalone with AOL as the parent company while we totally determine our
editorial policies. There's one year left, but Tim and I want to renew it. So
there's no change."
An Indian edition is due this year, and
Huffington is keen on "groundbreaking" journalism exploring
"solutions". "We've [so far] done three big projects, around
creating jobs, women's non-profits and social entrepreneurship. We are
prioritising [solutions] as seriously as covering corruption and speaking to power,
which is a very big departure for journalists, because [stories like these
were] traditionally seen as fluffy."
Her eldest daughter, who previously worked
for the family firm, now has a job at Participant Media, the production company
behind films such as An Inconvenient Truth, and Huffington is thrilled. "I
am very optimistic about the future media industry. I am even optimistic about
the future of newspapers."
Would she launch a business using her first
name? After all, she's becoming a bit like Oprah or Beyoncé with no need for
the surname. "I've learned never to rule out anything. Remember I ruled
out doing another book and here we are discussing Thrive. But having said that,
I love the combination of what I'm doing: HuffPost and taking the message of
Thrive around the world and across all our international editions." And
we're left with that image of a cat leaning back in order to jump even higher.
Curriculum vitae
Age 64
Career 1974 author The Female Woman 1980
After Reason 1981 Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend 1983 The Gods of
Greece 2003 Pigs at the Trough 2005 launches Huffington Post 2007 author, On
Becoming Fearless … in Love, Work, and Life 2010 Third World America: How Our
Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream
2011 sells Huffington Post to AOL
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