”At the time, a HuffPo contributor, Blake Fleetwood, wrote an open letter to Jim Romenesko’s media blog, saying, “For HuffPo to have paid their posters from the beginning would probably have doomed the experiment at its inception.” Well, fine — except that last year The New Yorker was reporting that HuffPo was already basically break-even. And insiders have floated a valuation for the company of $200 million. I’ve questioned that bloated figure in this column as recently as January, but even if HuffPo is worth half that or a quarter of that, well, it’s unconscionable for Huffington and Lerer and the backers of HuffPo to create millions for themselves on the backs of bloggers duped into working for “visibility.” Especially since the most obvious beneficiary of the HuffPo visibility dividend is Arianna Huffington herself.

Simon Dumenco, “The Award For Most Bitterly Ironic Media Award Goes To…”