Blog all about it: Kelly Osborne and friends explain why Brits should care about The Huffington Post

As “old media” appears to have “hit the self destruct button” (in the words of TV chap Richard Bacon), bastion of new media Arianna Huffington and (disclosure!) the people I used to work with at AOL UK have this week launched the UK edition of the quite-popular Huffington Post blog.

Huffington Post UK launched this week

And as you’d expect from the site’s first international launch since its $315m acquisition by AOL, a few quid was thrown in the direction of a PR agency to get some people on camera saying why they like it (video below).

Kelly Osbourne - who it must be said is looking marvellous these days - says she loves HuffPost because she “trusts” it, although the best sound byte comes from former spin doctor Alastair Campbell: “I mean, I’m going to be blogging for it, you know, when I feel like it, when I want to.”

That’s exactly how I feel about THIS site! Smirks aside, Campbell went on: “That’s why I think this whole online thing is changing the way that people can express themselves… and the way the public can engage with what’s being communicated.”

Look, I think it’s great that media from across the spectrum is taking blogging and online media with a whole new level of seriousness as a result of launches like HuffPost UK.

Yes, that IS Kelly Osbourne.

The site’s founder Arianna adorned a double page spread in the Evening Standard and a five minute slot on Sky News last night - and nobody is questioning the credibility of internet publishing any more, compared to ten years ago when the first defence of the old media was the kneejerk “don’t trust anything you read online” bollocks.

Telegraph hack Celia Walden also chimed in, saying she hopes Huff UK will encourage insightful blogging from specialists and pundits who “know an awful lot about what they’re talking about”, but don’t normally write articles in the press.

Are all experts also expert writers? Maybe they could get Wayne Rooney to write an editorial about kicking a ball around, complete with atrocious spelling apostrophes in all the wrong place’s.

HuffPost UK