Media Roundup: HuffPost Creates "Investigative Fund," Disney May Distribute With Hulu and More

HuffPost creates “investigative fund” — The Huffington Post has set aside $1.75 million to fund long-form investigative journalism. The money was raised along with Atlantic Philanthropies and will fund text, video and interactive stories. All content will be “open source” and available to be published anywhere for free. The Huffington Post will allocate the money to its staff of journalists as well as to freelancers. The Post has come under criticism in the past for not paying contributors and profiting off of the content of other news outlets. [Source: Huffington Post]

Disney may distribute with Hulu — Disney is said to be in talks with several online video distributors, including Hulu, Comcast and Google. Disney has askedHulu for a stake in the company in return for publishing rights. While Hulu’s revenue future is not entirely clear, Disney is seeking a 10 percent stake for $100 million. Comcast and Google are also said to be courting the company. Previously, Disney has only published video content on its proprietary Web sites. [Source: All Things Digital]

New York Times folds International Herald Tribune Web site into nytimes.com — The New York Times has incorporated its sister publication, the International Herald Tribune, into its Global section. Visitors to IHT.com will now be redirected to global.nytimes.com. However, some redirects for IHT articles have been displaying errors.  The paper version of the IHT has also received a redesign to look similar to the New York Times. Last week, The Times cut 100 staffers from its business operations. [Source: paidContent]

Internet advertising grew 10 percent last year — Lead by search ads, Internet advertising rose 10 percent in 2008. Although the growth rate is less than years past, the news is considered positive in the wake of an industry wide slowdown. Online video advertising saw the fastest rate of growth among all of the advertising categories. The report also revealed that total Internet advertising spending has outpaced cable TV for the first time. [Source: TechCrunch]

Star-Tribune withholds print content from Web — One of the top 30 online newspapers in the country, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, is withholding some print content from its Web site. In a letter to readers, editor Nancy Barnes questioned the validity of giving away content for free, and assured readers that the paper will still break news on the Web. The Star-Tribune has asked that the AP do not syndicate the withheld stories. The paper will post print content online a few days after being published. [Source: Editor & Publisher]