The Huffington Post President and EIC Arianna Huffington visits ESPN

Arianna Huffington, one of the most recognized names in the media industry, most notably for her founding of The Huffington Post, visited ESPN this week as part of the employee Newsmaker luncheon series.

Employees had the opportunity to hear Ms. Huffington speak on a variety of topics including her personal success and insight into the Huffington Post.

Front Row had the opportunity to sit down with Ms. Huffington and talk about her experience on the Bristol campus and commonalities she saw between ESPN and The Huffington Post.

Tell us about your experience at ESPN — did you have an opportunity to check out the campus?
I absolutely loved the questions I got from such a great group (during the Newsmaker luncheon) and I had the additional privilege of touring the halls and studios of ESPN with [Executive Vice President and Executive Editor of ESPN] John Walsh as my guide. Along the way, I met Adam Schefter, and we wondered if we could possibly have any Twitter followers in common. He’s the NFL Insider — a title I fear I will never hold.

What parallels do you see between the way ESPN covers sports and how Huffington Post covers politics?
Whether we’re talking sports, politics, or any other subject, the work we do is all about storytelling — and ESPN and HuffPost share a passion for and commitment to storytelling.

But our respect for ESPN goes well beyond politics. ESPN has been a role model for us as we’ve worked to develop HuffPost Live, our streaming video network. I love that ESPN embraced change from the very start, but was also able to spot what worked and stick with it — like doubling down on SportsCenter back when it was just a tiny slice of the original vision.

And then there’s the fact that the formal name of HuffPost Live, which is HuffPost Streaming Network — or HPSN — reminds me of ESPN. That has to be good luck.