AOL Buying Huffington Post for $315M

AOL is buying the Huffington Post for a whopping $315 million, and Arianna Huffington will become the owner of AOL news content. The purchase will bring the AOL news operation another 25 million visitors a day, reports AP. That's expected to help AOL boost its struggling display advertising business. The deal "will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community, and social experiences for consumers," said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. Huffington will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all Huffington Post and AOL content.

"My New Year's resolution for 2011 was to take HuffPost to the next level—not just incrementally, but exponentially,” she writes on the site—specifically creating new local and international sections, more original video, more content surrounding the topics of service/giving back, and fresh sections on previously-ignored subjects like cars, music, and gaming. And she points to AOL's Patch.com, Autoblog, and new state-of-the-art video studios as just a few examples of how, in this blending, "1 + 1 = 11." Writes Huffington, "Far from changing our editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, this moment will be for HuffPost like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet." (More Arianna Huffington stories.)