Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy who left office last year in the depths of the economic crisis, resurfaced this week on the new Italian-language website of The Huffington Post.
Berlusconi insisted speculation over his private life was “disinformation and defamation” in an interview with the website. The Italian site, L’Huffington Post, which made its debut on Tuesday, is the fifth version of the news outlet outside the US, following its rollout in Canada, Britain, France and Spain.
Arianna Huffington, the site’s founder, said she did not plan to stop there. Germany is next, with an introduction planned for January, and discussions are under way with potential business partners in Japan, South Korea, India and Brazil, executives said.
L’Huffington Post employs the bare-bones staffing model that The Huffington Post has used in other markets, with only about a dozen paid, full-time editorial employees. L’Huffington Post has some paid freelance contributors, but also relies on bloggers who provide unpaid material in return for the exposure.
Huffington said she was happy with the growth of the international editions, though she declined to say how much revenue they were generating. – (New York Times service)
