I don’t think so. And I think the reason has more to do with the assertion made in the same article that people are interested in politics 365 days a year. I think has more to do with reputation. Rush Limbaugh rose to prominence on the radio in the 1990s while Bill Clinton was the president. Limbaugh made his career mocking the Clintons and pandering to the political right’s philosophy of rigid morality and the virtues of capitalism. Huffington Post, now only three years old, arose in large part due to the shift in political dominance to conservatives who have controlled the White House since 2000. Just as Limbaugh still has a loyal radio audience, so too will Huffington Post continue to enjoy a loyal online readership. It’s a brand.
Plus, here’s a clue:
Also new? The site’s tagline, “the internet newspaper,” introduced in 2008. The line de-emphasizes politics in favor of a more neutral, newsy tone. According to Morgan, over half of the site’s traffic is now for non-political stories.
While opinion may have been what led Huffington Post to prominence, it will be news that keeps it there. People like reading their news online. They don’t want it from the same staid TV and radio sources any more. In fact, people are going online for just about everything these days and it will likely be more the case even in the future.
My guess is, Huffington Post will continue to be a popular destination and what you’ll likely see after the election is a head-to-head battle of ideologies between Huffington Post loyalists and Bill O’Reilly and Fox News hounds. Welcome to the world of online yellow journalism.
