Huffington Post planning web TV 'network' to rival CNN

AOL’s Huffington Post Media Group is "preparing to launch a live over-the-internet video channel modeled on the 24-hour cable news networks," Jeff Bercovici reports at the Forbes website. "The project hasn’t been announced yet, but Huffington and AOL chairman Tim Armstrong have been dropping hints about it in their public remarks, which haven’t gone unnoticed. It will be called the Huffington Post Streaming Network, or HPSN."

The idea, according to sources, is to harness the considerable editorial talent of the 320-person Huffpo newsroom while at the same time fulfilling rising advertiser demand for premium video content. Huffpo editors and reporters will appear on the stream live throughout the day, analyzing breaking news events in real-time. On-camera editorial meetings will let viewers in on the newsgathering process, and their social media feedback will be incorporated into the broadcast. Later, video editors will recut footage from the live stream into clips to distribute across the site’s many verticals, where it can more easily find sponsorship.

In broad outline, it’s not terribly different from what The Wall Street Journal is already doing.

A HuffPo spokesperson told Forbes the service would be previewed Feb. 2 at AOL's headquarters in Manhattan.

Also today: Mark Cuban's HDNet will be rebranded as AXS TV in a partnership that includes AEG, Ryan Seacrest Media and Creative Artists Agency. LA Biz Observed