A B: Good morning.
KARA SWISHER: Hi. How are you doing?
: Well, why is AOL doing this deal with Huffington Post, for this price, at this time?
SWISHER: Well, price is one issue. But they are doing it because they need to really turbo charge this effort by the CEO, Tim Armstrong, to focus on content and sort of become - they're calling it a new media company. Sort of a new media, and not in the old media way, but sort of a way to deliver content - and quality content, in a web fashion, and actually make money from it.
: And what do we know about Arianna Huffington's new role with AOL?
SWISHER: She'll be the head of all the content on AOL. And they own a lot of content properties across a lot of topic areas. They've got finance sites. They've got politics sites. She's even running the MapQuest division of AOL.
: And one thing about content - the Huffington Post is very much identified as a liberal outpost. Is this how AOL wants to be identified?
SWISHER: And she's certainly sort of in the Democratic camp. But at the same time, they've really evolved and broadened their topic areas beyond politics too.
: Well, Ms. Swisher, what do you think it says about the future of online news? And there you get into - maybe you could, you know, answer if this is a good deal for AOL for what it's offering to pay.
SWISHER: The question is how are people reading now? Are young people reading more socially? Do they read at websites? Do they go to destinations? What it does say is that news is an exciting area and it always will be. It just depends on how it's going to be distributed.
: Kara, thanks very much.
SWISHER: No problem.
: This is NPR News.
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