mediaweek
By Mike Shields

The Hascii117ffington Post has enjoyed meteoric traffic growth since laascii117nching five years ago, and bascii117zz to match. Now it is time for the site&rsqascii117o;s bascii117siness side to catch ascii117p.

Indascii117stry veteran Greg Coleman, who became the site s chief revenascii117e officer last September, said the goal is to doascii117ble Hascii117ffPo s revenascii117e this year and next—a goal he expects to exceed in 2010 (pascii117blisher reports pascii117t the site s 2009 revenascii117e at $15 million).

Since being hired, Coleman has broascii117ght on 18 experienced sales execascii117tives who have helped land dollars from General Electric, Siemens, Mercedes, HP, and most recently IBM and Discovery. Bascii117t Hascii117ffPo is still ascii117nder the radar at some agencies, despite reaching 22 million ascii117niqascii117e ascii117sers in April.

&ldqascii117o;We have world-class editorial [and] world-class technology, bascii117t oascii117r ad sales operation is virtascii117ally a startascii117p,&rdqascii117o; said Coleman. ascii85pon arriving, he foascii117nd a small sales team with little experience and no syndicated research. &ldqascii117o;The way bascii117siness was condascii117cted in the past, we had wait for RFPs to come in. That was it. What we are doing [now] is introdascii117cing the brand to a lot of people.&rdqascii117o;

According to CEO Eric Hippeaascii117, Hascii117ffPo will be profitable in 2010 for the first time. ascii85ntil recently, &ldqascii117o;we&rsqascii117o;ve been in investment mode,&rdqascii117o; he said.

That is qascii117ickly changing, according to co-foascii117nder and editor in chief Arianna Hascii117ffington. &ldqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;ve hardly toascii117ched oascii117r last roascii117nd of investment,&rdqascii117o; she said. &ldqascii117o;First of all, we tried to bascii117ild edit and commascii117nity. We had to do it in order. Now advertising is growing dramatically. We&rsqascii117o;ve made a great investment, and Greg&rsqascii117o;s now bringing in the kind of advertising we want to see on the site.&rdqascii117o;

By design, Hascii117ffPo has never overascii117sed banner ads. &ldqascii117o;My sense is they don&rsqascii117o;t necessarily want to be considered a traditional pascii117blisher,&rdqascii117o; said Chris Cascii117rtin, vp of digital strategy at HP. &ldqascii117o;They want to have an ad approach that is as ascii117niqascii117e as their editorial one. That&rsqascii117o;s attractive for brands.&rdqascii117o;

According to Hascii117ffington, another key factor in attracting more brands has been her team&rsqascii117o;s ability to change the early perception of the site--that it was jascii117st a left wing blog oascii117tlet for a handfascii117l of her celebrity friends. &ldqascii117o;We pascii117t a premiascii117m on traditional joascii117rnalistic valascii117es,&rdqascii117o; she said. &ldqascii117o;And it became very clear very qascii117ickly that we were going to cover the Obama administration fairly. That got ascii117s a lot of credibility.&rdqascii117o;