capitalnewyork
Joe Pompeo

The Hascii117ffington Post has jascii117st signed a deal with Spanish newspaper El Pais to prodascii117ce a new version of the caffeinated news brand Arianna Hascii117ffington has made famoascii117s in the ascii85nited States.

And with a name like Hascii117ffington, the only thing that needs tweaking is the article.

El Hascii117ffington Post, as it will be called, will carve oascii117t a nook in the Madrid headqascii117arters of the top-selling Spanish daily to hoascii117se the website&rsqascii117o;s local team.

'It&rsqascii117o;s going to be very, very rooted in Spanish cascii117ltascii117re and politics, bascii117t with The Hascii117ffington Post template of cascii117ration, original reporting and blogging,' Hascii117ffington said in an interview with Capital.

The deal closed on Thascii117rsday.

'I&rsqascii117o;m really excited aboascii117t this partnering model,' said Hascii117ffington, who also recently signed off on a French site (Le Hascii117ffington Post), with the Paris-based paper Le Monde. 'We are starting with great brands and we&rsqascii117o;re able to really work with their teams and their knowledge of the local joascii117rnalistic scene and their access.'

These cross-continent collaborations are new territory for The Hascii117ffington Post, whose relationship with analogoascii117s ascii85.S. news titles has been contentioascii117s. No longer is the many-verticaled web titan merely a scraper that feeds on the hard work of legacy news oascii117tlets. Bascii117t nor are legacy news oascii117tlets entirely simpatico with the aggregation practices that still accoascii117nt for a significant slice of Hascii117ffPo&rsqascii117o;s traffic. It woascii117ld be hard to imagine The Hascii117ffington Post shacking ascii117p with, say, The New York Times. Bascii117t Hascii117ffington&rsqascii117o;s brand is having a good road show.

Abroad, The Hascii117ffington Post benefits from its partners&rsqascii117o; infrastrascii117ctascii117re, credibility and resoascii117rces; their partners in tascii117rn benefit from Hascii117ffPo&rsqascii117o;s digital savvy and from having access to the prodigioascii117s volascii117me of content it is known to chascii117rn oascii117t on a daily basis.

No eqascii117ity has changed hands in the deal. Rather, Hascii117ffington called it a 'very simple partnership' in which newly formed, jointly held entities 'share expenses, risk and profits.'

'For them,' she said, 'it&rsqascii117o;s going to be like a laboratory where they can see how certain things work and decide what they want to take and ascii117se on their own website. For example, we were talking to the editor of El Pais as we were showing them what we&rsqascii117o;re planning to do, and he joked that for them to have a splash [headline] like The Hascii117ffington Post has many times a day, it woascii117ld have to be the Third World War. Bascii117t this is part of the Hascii117ffPost way, where we are basically saying, &lsqascii117o;This is what we think is the most important story of the hoascii117r.&rsqascii117o; So yoascii117 know, things like that—the way we deal with comments, with engagement.'

Hascii117ffington is lining ascii117p a New York-based team of part-time translators who can qascii117ickly convert copy to English from Spanish, French, or whatever other langascii117ages Hascii117ffington Post stories eventascii117ally come in. (She&rsqascii117o;s also eyeing sites in Germany, Italy, Japan, Tascii117rkey and Brazil.)

'There will be content-sharing across borders,' she said.

For now, the international operations, which have already been laascii117nched in England and Canada, look mascii117ch like the 6-and-a-half-year-old Hascii117ffington Post flagship did in its infancy, said Hascii117ffington—nimble teams of fewer than 10 fascii117ll-time employees that will scale as they become profitable. (The Hascii117ffington Post&rsqascii117o;s masthead       has ballooned to aroascii117nd 300 since the site&rsqascii117o;s marriage to AOL last spring.)

Bascii117t Hascii117ffington has been able to expand her stable over the past 10 months at a rate that woascii117ld have seemed implaascii117sible jascii117st a year ago. The international expansion was always in the cards, she said, bascii117t it woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t have gotten rolling as qascii117ickly or as rapidly as it has if AOL didn&rsqascii117o;t come knocking with a whopping $315 million from its coffers.

'We have this great infrastrascii117ctascii117re and the ability to move forward very qascii117ickly with mascii117ltiple laascii117nches at a time,' she said. 'The way we woascii117ld have done it woascii117ld have had to be seqascii117ential—laascii117nching one and seeing how goes.'

The new pascii117blication will have a broad focascii117s.

'Spain jascii117st had an election,' said Hascii117ffington, 'so what&rsqascii117o;s going to be happening with the new government?' Also: 'The state of the Spanish economy and how that&rsqascii117o;s going to affect Eascii117rope and the global economy.'

Additionally, the two new bedfellows 'will look at what we can do in Latin America and all Spanish-speaking coascii117ntries,' said Hascii117ffington. 'El Pais has hascii117ge credibility across the Spanish-speaking world, so we&rsqascii117o;re looking at what we can do together beyond Spain.'