LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – AOL isn't close to shuttering Patch, don't look for it to merge with Yahoo anytime soon, and don't ask her about breaking up the company because that's not her concern. Oh, and TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington had to go, and the merger has been great for business.
Those were the key points put forth by political gadfly turned new-media mogul Arianna Huffington, as she fielded questions Tuesday from Sharon Waxman, founder and editor-in-chief of TheWrap at the site's media-leadership conference, TheGrill, at Beverly Hills' SLS Hotel.
Serving as president and editor-in-chief of AOL Huffington Post Media since her burgeoning new media company was purchased for $350 million by AOL in February, Huffington immediately dismissed the notion that the growth of her company is being waylaid by its ties to what Waxman described as a "Web 1.0" company.
"The merger has actually had the opposite effect," Huffington said. "Since the integration, the Huffington Post has grown 49 percent and added 24 sections. My dream was to grow in multiple ways at the same time, but we didn't have the resources available to do that before. All of these new launches we wanted to do would have taken years."
As for the recent international expansion, for example -- which has included the launches of HuffPost Canada and HuffPost UK -- she added, "I don't know when we would have been able to do that."
Waxman also grilled Huffington on Patch, the labor-intensive local news initiative launched by AOL before the merger. With Patch employing over 1,000 journalists and costing its parent company around $160 million a year to run, will the newly formed AOL Huffington Post Media keep it around?
Huffington said AOL/HuffPo is just scratching the surface as to how the local-oriented Patch can be melded into the nationally minded Huffington Post. She pointed to a recent story about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who used a police helicopter -- at a cost of $2,500 in public funds -- to get to his son's baseball game in June.
"That story would have probably died at the local Patch, but by moving it to the HuffPost homepage, it was everywhere in a couple of hours. That is one of the lessons that we are discovering," Huffington said.
As for rumors that AOL is looking to buy Yahoo -- which gained fuel when the Virginia-based dial-up-spawned tech giant hired an investment bank -- Huffington said rumors are usually a good sign a deal isn't going to happen.
"I almost feel like there's a reverse correlation between rumors and reality," she explained. "There wasn't a single rumor about AOL and the Huffington Post merging before that was about to happen. When people want something to happen and they care, they're careful about leaks."
As for the prospect of breaking up AOL -- a company, under the leadership of Tim Armstrong, which is trying to transition from its dial-up roots into a pure-play media provider -- Huffington said she keeps her head down and her eyes focused.
"I'm not dealing with that," she told Waxman. "I have a big job, and I love it. My job and my commitment is to keep building an amazing media company and keep improving what we're doing."
As for Arrington, the controversial founder of AOL's tech blog, TechCrunch, Huffington said there was never a question that he had to step down once he decided to establish a venture capital fund that would provide money to companies covered by his blog.
"Michael is somebody who built an amazing site, and I have no doubt that he'll be a great head of a VC fund, but he just can't be both at once," Huffington said. "It's one of those black-and-white issues."
Huffington insisted that with her newfound media moguldom, she's "out of the political game." But she didn't demur when Waxman asked her about President Barack Obama's recent struggles and re-elections prospects.
Her suggestion to the President: "I think he should acknowledge that he's changing his tone, otherwise it will be seen as campaigning in advance of the election. And I would have him admit that underestimated the jobs crises."
Huffington also expressed her take on the overall economy, drawing laughs from the auditorium audience of nearly 200 when she noted that the U.S. has fallen behind France in recent measurements of upward mobility.
"Being behind France in upward mobility is a little like France being behind us in croissants and afternoon sex," she quipped.
Also drawing a laugh at the beginning of the Q&A: Waxman recalled a local L.A.-area hike she took with Huffington several years ago. Waxman, a former New York Times and Washington Post reporter, asked Huffington, a well-known socialite, if she'd throw a party for her just-published book.
"I'd love to baby," Huffington responded, "but I'm starting this little internet thing."
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