Laura McGann, writing for Nieman Journalism Lab, starts to unravel an interesting tale, about The Huffington Post's "Impact" section--a section which The Cable Gamer had noticed on the Huffpo site, but not thought much about till now. Here's the way McGann describes it:
In October, The Huffington Post launched a new section with an unusual goal: turning an audience of passive readers into activists for good causes. The section’s underlying business model is novel, too: All of its content is outsourced to an outside company, a for-profit firm that has nonprofits for clients.
In exchange for that content, HuffPo shares the advertising and sponsorship revenue the section generates with the outside company, Causecast. And Causecast gets a platform to promote its services and the nonprofits it chooses to highlight, some of which are its partner organizations.
The arrangement emerges at the same time news organizations are struggling to make display advertising alone a viable business model. The HuffPo-Causecast arrangement, in conjunction with ads, could be an example of the kind of hybrid solution publishers are struggling to find. However, by blurring the line between advertising and content, it also raises questions about conflicts of interest and editorial responsibility.
Interesting questions, all, about Huffpo operates in conjunction with Causecast. Lots of unanswered questions. For example, the section on the Causecast site shows a variety of bold-faced celebrities associated with the group, including Russell Simmons, Jenny McCarthy, and Natasha Bedingfield. But nobody thinks that any of them are actually running Causecast, or scoping out its relationship with Huffpo, or with donors.
McGann does her best, but there are plenty of questions that need better answers--or maybe more honest answers. For example, consider this question posed by by McGann to the president of Causecast:
When I asked Brian Sirgutz, Causecast’s president, if a Causecast client could pay for a link or a story on the Impact page, a spokeswoman for the organization responded in an email that they could not. I also asked if Causecast clients get any priority in the editorial process when determining what nonprofits to feature. I was told “no.”
That seems straightforward enough--"no" can be assumed to mean "no." But then McGann adds:
But that doesn’t mean Causecast isn’t writing about or linking to affiliated organizations. Here’s an example: On Jan. 31, Harris wrote a 76-word post titled, “Malaria Is The Cause of 2010, Declares Matthew Bishop and Malaria No More.” The quick post notes that the nonprofit group Malaria No More expects the World Cup in South Africa to draw attention to the disease. Underneath the post, a box features a link to donate money to Malaria No More, using Causecast’s donation tool. Harris doesn’t mention in the post that Malaria No More is a member organization of his employer, or that Causecast ran Malaria No More’s mobile fundraising campaign. Causecast lists the campaign as a case study for its text2give services.
In other words, it sure seems as if Malaria No More is getting some special treatment, from Causecast, and thus from Huffpo.
Now let's see. Malaria No More, obviously a key group to Causecast. Hmmm. Malaria No More. Where have we heard that name before? And who is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Malaria No More? Why, Peter Chernin, the former COO of the News Corp. until he was more or less pushed out last summer, sits at the top of Malaria No More.
Small world! And so now he's tight with Causecast and Huffpost. Tell me more! For openers, we might ask: What sort of business relationships, if any, are laced up with philanthropy?
And oh yes, what has Chernin had to say, if anything, to Arianna Huffington? The Cable Gamer has been paying more attention to Huffpo's founder since she went out of her way to attack Roger Ailes a few weeks ago on ABC News. I wonder who Chernin was rooting for during that exchange.
One side note: As McGann observes, the future of media seems to include the sort of Huffpo/Causecast hybrid, perhaps with a few operators, such as Chernin, thrown in, just to make sure nobody goes broke. But interestingly enough, The Nieman Lab is a part of Harvard University, so it, too, is a non-profit with complicated connections all over the place. So plenty to unravel, on all sides. Maybe Huffpo can do a profile on Nieman.
