Huffington Post Moving Away from Freelancers

One of the biggest tech-related mergers this year is AOL’s $315 million acquisition of Huffington Post. The website editor and owner, Arianna Huffington, will become the lead editor of the website which is now the Huffington Post Media Group. It’s a very significant acquisition for the online world because it shows how a blog website could become very expensive.

But the movement of Huffington Post from an independent website to AOL is not just a buy-out where the popular website will retain its status-quo as an online journalist. In the process of merger, Huffington Post is slowly eliminating the need for freelancers. The focus of the website is no longer on citizen journalism but on real journalism where they will hire professional editors and writers to write articles on a full time basis. There are still freelance bloggers on the site but they are well known personalities or leaders in their industry.

The reaction from the freelancers with the movement on Huffington Post is naturally negative. It has come to a point where the site is now being sued for more than $100 million. According to the class action lawsuit, Huffington Post reposted some of the content for free in their website without paying the author. Before the revamp of Huffington Post, the website was known to aggregate popular articles online created by other writers without any fee.

Moving away from citizen journalism could be a good business decision for Huffington Post. However, it has created a hole for freelancers and leads the way for another site to take them under its wing.

Marks and Spencer Returns to France with a New Marketing Plan

Marks and Spencer is returning to France after the company removed their stores more than a decade ago. As one of the major clothing retailers in the world, Marks and Spencer opted to return to France because of the increasing awareness of their brand. Plans to open the first retail store in France were announced November 2010 and they expect to open the first retail shop by the end of 2011. Like most of the clothing giants, Marks and Spencer will open shop in the popular Street of Champs de Elysees.

The clothing brand is not just focused on basic retail shops to attract customers. To cater to the increasing demand for their products, Marks and Spencer will also launch a French version of the Marks and Spencer’s website with payment in Euros. The site was created to cater for customers looking for products they can’t easily find in retail shops in France. The website (marksandspencer.fr) will also feature different household items under the Marks and Spencer brand. The expected catalog in the company’s official French website is expected to reach more than 10,000 items.

Marks and Spencer also revealed their plans to open food-only shops in different sites in Paris. Named Marks and Spencer Simply Food Store, the company is also exploring other sites in the country for a possible rapid expansion along with bigger clothing and food shops.

The company caused a controversy when they pulled out of France in 2001 since the Marks and Spencer in the country was still considered profitable. The closure caused many job losses that even the French government intervened in the situation.