Instead, I am afraid that as part of AOL, the...

“Instead, I am afraid that as part of AOL, the Huffington Post will become completely ensnared in the content farm approach to the web where fewer and fewer links go to the outside world. After all, this is the company that wants to produce 50,000+ pieces of content every month with its own writers.”

Continuations: AOL Buys Huffington Post (Mixed Emotions)

I do not share Albert’s concern over the future of the Huffington Post. The site could do a lot worse than be bought by a company dedicated to the creation of original content. What’s at issue—and something Rex Sorgatz pointed out last week—is quality. How good is that original content going to be? Based on the Ken Auletta profile of Tim Armstrong, AOL’s new chief, it seems Arianna Huffington is stepping into an editorial vacuum, where she will continue to be able to exert her control over her product. So no worries here that the Huffington Post is going to change.

What’s worrisome is that it’s just going to become an augmented version of itself. Huffington Post is such an appealing product to AOL because their business strategies are the same: volume. Create as much content as possible for as little as possible so that you can milk the most out of low CPMs. Both Armstrong and Huffington are convinced it will work because Armstrong saw it work at Google (who has a bigger inventory than them?) and the HuffPo is operating in the black.

If anything, Armstrong has transformed AOL into an amplified Huffington Post. It’s only natural that he’d want to own the real thing. It’s the perfect partnership, for better or worse.

[Found via pegobry. Tx!]