Welcome, Arianna and the Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington’s new blog, the Huffington Post, debuts today.

Arianna Huffington I forgot to mention earlier, that I saw and chatted briefly about her new project with Arianna at the Correspondents’ Dinner.

I bring that up because her blog is a strange disconnect for me: in person, Arianna is strikingly beautiful, quite engaging, and her accent, so distracting on television, is charming. By contrast, the blog, named after her, is strangely none of those things.

First, I do understand branding (does she really need to worry about that?) but a little more verve in the appellation would have been welcome. And second, the Washington Post today reports that she has seven paid staffers on this project. Wow. Any designers among them? Today’s the first day, so maybe they are working on the list of bugs — start with the too-small, too-blurry pictures, guys: see Arianna’s pic, and John Cusack’s, copied here as Exhibits A and B.

Now the “celebrity” writing has possibilities. But again, I’m skeptical. After reading the gay marriage piece by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and her husband (see this post below) I skipped down to John Cusack’s tribute to Hunter Thompson:

John Cusack

Went to Hunter S. Thompson’s memorial service in Aspen. The next day, we went to Owl Farm — which remained untouched since Hunter’s death two weeks before. The sun was shining and gunfire echoed as friends and family gathered and shot targets on the lawn. Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” booming. Books, notes, numbers, pills, bullets, totems and talismans everywhere. Outside his wife offered liquid acid to people in the driveway. . .

I don’t know. One wonders how long before the ghostwriters take over. Or, worse thought: maybe that is a ghost’s attempt to sound “real.”

Anyway, lest I sound too negative, I do think Arianna’s blog is a great thing for the blogosphere. If nothing else, her entry emphasizes the new reality: blogs are the future and the blogosphere is where it’s at.