Huffington Post Establishing Interactive Video News Network

The Huffington Post will introduce HuffPost Live, an online television network dedicated to news commentary, on Aug. 13.

The network will be broadcasted 12 hours a day on the weekdays “with highlights after hours and on weekends,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s Keach Hagey. It will be staffed by 100 news professionals from outlets like CNN, ABC, and al-Jazeera English, and feature conversations and commentary from “the community of people who have left nearly 200 million comments on the site over the past seven years.”

In a letter to readers, Arianna Huffington said that the Live stream will include a dialogue with fans of the site.

“People are tired of being talked at; they want to be talked with,” she said. “The news is no longer about a few people telling everyone else what happened — it’s about everyone telling everyone what’s happening right now.”

A site, HuffPost Live 3, 2, 1 was launched in preparation for the premiere. The blog’s commenters and fans have a chance to audition to be on the show by “recording a video sounding off on what you are passionate about, what ticks you off, or what topics you’d like to see us cover,” Huffington said. “The most engaging submissions will be posted on the ‘3, 2, 1…’ page — and those who left them will be invited to become regular guests on HuffPost Live.”

“We’re not trying to report the news,” said Roy Sekoff, a founding editor of the blog who is leading HuffPost Live, in an interview with the Journal. “We are trying to have conversations that the news inspires.”

By tapping into its network of opinionated commenters, HuffPost is following the rule of finding the right crowd. These are people that want a platform for their voices to heard, which HuffPost Live will provide, even more so than the comments section.