AOL buys Huffington Post

This story is a great example of the realities of the media today:

Media consolidation.

Horizontal integration.

Vertical integration.

AOL has bought the Huffington Post:

"The transaction will create a premier global, national, local, and hyper-local content group for the digital age - leveraged across online, mobile, tablet, and video platforms. The combination of AOL's infrastructure and scale with The Huffington Post's pioneering approach to news and innovative community building among a broad and sophisticated audience will mark a seminal moment in the evolution of digital journalism and online engagement."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/aol-huffington-post_n_819375.html

Who owns the media?

Find out here:

http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/media-ownership/dashboard.php

Notice its the same companies for each type of media?

This is a good example of horizontal integration.

This helps explain why these corporations are so powerful.

(oh, and they all focus on crime, A LOT!)