Arianna Huffington’s goal of creating an Internet newspaper has led to plenty of verticals you find in major newspapers — like health, sports, technology – and some that are disappearing, like books.
But Huffington’s latest vertical is something newspapers rarely devote an entire section to: divorce.
“I've always thought that, as a country, we do a lousy job of addressing how we can do divorce differently — and better,” Huffington wrote in an introductory post. “Especially when there are children involved. That's why I'm so excited about the launch of HuffPost Divorce.”
Huffington explained that the launch was inspired by Nora Ephron, the author and Huffington Post editor-at-large “who knows a thing or two about the subject.”
They both do. “Heartburn” is Ephron’s novel loosely-based on her failed marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, and Huffington herself has been divorced for 13 years. “I definitely have skin in this game,” Huffington wrote, “and the scars to prove it.”
The section, edited by former Los Angeles magazine associate editor Sara Wilson and senior editor Willow Bay, “will tackle the topic from many angles, providing insight, resources, community, and some comic relief to those impacted by what Nora, in her new book, calls the Big D.” (The section launched with an exclusive excerpt from Ephron's latest book, "I Remember Nothing.")
More "how-the-media-gets-made" background from Huffington’s post:
I was spending a weekend with [Ephron] in July at her home in Long Island, as was Alessandra Stanley, the television critic for the New York Times. One morning, Alessandra and I headed off on a long walk down the beach, and we ended up talking a lot about our divorces. When we got back to Nora's, we recounted some of our conversation, at which point she told us that she had actually been thinking that HuffPost's next section should be devoted to all things divorce.
Over breakfast, Nora came up with the tag line for the section — "Marriage comes and goes but divorce is forever" — and Alessandra offered up what has become our inaugural divorce aphorism (the first in a series): "His happiness is a small price to pay for my freedom!"
So far, it looks like more or less like Huffington’s other verticals, populated with HuffPo content that has “divorce” in the title, or has been tagged as such. Above the logo, there’s a Google ad box with locally targeted advertising (“Need a divorce lawyer in Westport? Click here”).
Ironically, the first real ad carried on HuffPost Divorce is one for Conan O’Brien’s TBS debut — with O’Brien and NBC starring in perhaps the ugliest public divorce in the history of television. (Click to enlarge.)
