By Craig McGill
So the much-talked about Huffington Post has launched in the UK with columns by the likes of Ricky Gervais and Alastair Campbell - and what a week to do it with the News of the World hacking scandal kicking off again.
But it's a strange beast this HuffPoUK and while it may be new, that doesn't mean that it is fresh. Or interesting. In fact, one persons summed it up to me as "Is there a digital equivalent of a slip edition? If so, HuffPo UK is it."
It's trying but failing on a lot of levels. First off, you better know the URL to look for because you won't find it in Google under "Huffington Post UK" but once you do get there it looks, well, just like the American site. Functional without being flashy or overly pretty.
So the eye then goes to the content. And that's not very good sadly. First off, there's no strong exclusive to launch the site (yes, I know it's not an essential item but any reporter/editor worth their salt always wants to break and launch with a scoop). Instead, we have a lift from Alastair Campbell's site, a bunch of rewrites and links from the likes of the Sun and a piece by Tracey Ullman on how Arianna "blaaaahhhgs" though there's no mention of the millions of words that she blagged from unpaid bloggers.
And on that note, while the lack of payment to many has been spoken about - indeed it's the subject of one reporter's post today - here's hoping they can get a sub-editor in to do some headlines for them. The headlines are very much in the US style - a style that most media commentators on this side of the Atlantic consider passive, weak and ineffective.
For example "Revulsion at Milly Dowler Phone-Hacking Changes the Public and Political Mood on This" looks as if it is missing an ending (it's not that great for SEO either).
Similarly, 'America and Britain's Economic Policies Will Soon Be Similar' is passive, lacks impact and is nothing more than an opinion. Tell me it's an expert's opinion and then I'm more invested but as is, weak.
It's also a site that is quite happy to dip in and show the US content as it needs, so it feels - as mentioned - like a slip edition with the US padding it out.
And on that note of being a UK edition, I see nothing telling me about Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Instead we have stuff on the NOTW - including some nice live coverage of PMQs to be fair - and a pile of articles about HuffPo, Arianna and the media. So it's perfect for the London Media Guardian crowd who think the M25 is the end of the UK.
Then there's the App. At the side there's a lovely link to the appstore version but it takes you to a .com version and not a .co.uk version. Now the odds are that there's some kind of functionality that lets you switch US/UK but some people might be turned off, looking for a co.uk edition.
Ironically, what made the Huff Po so big in the states - left-wing bloggers - is more or less missing from the UK site, which has concentrated - for launch day - on the celebrities writing for it, which gives it a feel of Huff Po Hello!. What made the Huff Po so big in the US was the multitude of bloggers having a collective place to be. There's less need for that in the UK as we already have the Guardian and Comment is Free so it will be interesting to see how it distinguishes in the long run.
Here's hoping that it can be a success - though there should be concerns over the unpaid element - and it can actually start to have some good Scottish content.
But for now is it must-read? No. Far from it, especially for viewers in Scotland.
Short and sweet: Craig McGill is the MD and Creative Guy at Scottish social media firm Contently Managed. He is an ex-journalist and author of four books and you can reach him on Twitter @craigmcgill.
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