The Huffington Post is dead, long live HuffPost

Less than a year after Ariana Huffington announced that she was stepping down as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, the popular news site has rebranded itself as HuffPost.

According to Lydia Polgreen, HuffPost’s new editor-in-chief, the re-branding of the site goes beyond a much-needed facelift (it’s the first significant makeover in the company’s 12 year history).

Polgreen told journalists: “The new design reflects our bold promise to help readers know what’s real and what really matters.”

Talking journalists through the various elements of the site’s re-designed logo, HuffPost’s head of product, Julia Beizer, said: “We started with what we believe sets us apart – our editorial voice: down to earth, cutting through what doesn’t matter and getting to what’s real.

“These thoughts inspired the forward-slash shape that brackets our name on the top of our site and stands alone as our app and social logo.

“The shape symbolises the company’s movement forward into the future, and subtly pays homage to our heritage as the first scaled digital-only news brand by evoking the forward slash found in URLs.”

HuffPost chief executive, Jared Grusd, joined the excited commentary by stating: “HuffPost is the pioneer of online journalism and continues to lead the digital news landscape. Our changes today build upon our heritage of continuous innovation.

“Today, we make a decided leap into our future. The rebrand and relaunch of our products symbolise our commitment to continually evolve to help our audiences connect with a world that is changing rapidly around them.”

While the HuffPost has been criticized by many in “traditional” media organisations – it’s style of news aggregation has been described as “glitzy thief of journalism”, there can be no-doubting its success.

With nearly 200 million daily page views across its various site and a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in the United States in the US, the HuffPost has pioneered news delivery in the social age.

So what do you think of the new branding? Is it a bold step forward for the company? Did you even notice? Share your comments below: