Like Mothra, Huffington Post Swoops into Tokyo; Launches Japanese Edition

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Partnering with Asahi Shimbun, Japan's second largest newspaper with more than seven million daily readers, AOL-owned news aggregator The Huffington Post this week launched a Japanese edition.

According to a post by the independent media publishing company journalism.co.uk, HuffPo also last week announced plans to debut an edition in Germany in a joint effort with Tomorrow Focus AG. HuffPo debuted its U.K. version in July 2011 (see "TUOL" post 6/22/11), the same year Canada's HuffPO went online (see "TUOL" post 5/26/11). Other European editions are online in France in collaboration with Le Monde (see "TUOL" post 1/23/12); Italy, in partnership with GruppoExpresso; and Spain in partnership with El Pais.

Shigeki Matsuura will be at the helm of Huffington Post Japan. The editor-in-chief previously helped to launch the online edition of Wired in Japan and political blogging site BLOGOS. Asahi Shimbun's digital division director hopes HuffPo will draw a younger demographic than the print edition, and aspires to reach 50 million monthly visitors, according to the journalism.co.uk post.

As HuffPo's plan for world domination moves apace, soon online visitors on every continent will be able to glimpse side boob photos of Miley Cyrus.

UPDATE: Hartford Courant Settles 'Hot News' Copyright Suit with Journal-Inquirer

Image via WikipediaSettlement terms were not disclosed, but the Tribune Co.-owned Hartford Courant earlier this month quietly ended its defense of a copyright infringement/"hot news" suit brought against it by the Manchester Journal-Inquirer (see "TUOL" post 12/4/09), PaidContent.org reported.

The Journal Inquirer sued for $1.65 million, claiming that the Courant plagiarized its stories about education and local water issues, posting some on the Courant Web site without attribution. The Courant apologized to its readers in September 2009 (see "TUOL" post 9/4/09) for its ersatz news aggregating practices.

With the parties' out-of-court resolution, journalism junkies are deprived of seeing the Journal Inquirer's "stealing news" accusation played out in open court. The Courant had contended that its news aggregating came under the fair use exception to the plaintiff's copyright infringement count, and denied the re-written stories at issue constituted "hot news." The so-called hot news doctrine, which amounts to a property right in information, dates back to an Associated Press case decided by the Supreme Court in 1913, but enjoyed a revival of sorts last year with a New York case involving a financial services Website.

An Aggregate Apology from The Hartford Courant

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Tribune Co.-owned The Hartford Courant has published a letter of apology from CEO, President and Publisher Richard J. Graziano for engaging in news aggregating practices that the Courant conceded amounted to plagiarism.

"We have determined that over the last several weeks the Courant plagiarized the work of some of our competitors," Graziano wrote. "This was not our intent, but it is in fact what happened. We are taking corrective action to prevent it from happening again. We have also disciplined the individuals involved." The letter did not detail what the remedial measures are.

The Courant aggregated news from across Connecticut, but failed to attribute the origin of some of the content that it posted, prompting a letter of complaint of misappropriation from Managing Editor Chris Powell of the Manchester Journal Inquirer. Michael Miner, who writes The Blog for www.chicagoreader.com, alleges that the Courant posted stories from other Connecticut newspapers on its Web site, some of which found their way into the print edition of the Courant under the byline of a Courant reporter. In a press release, The Society of Professional Journalists minced no words in characterizing the Courant's conduct as "theft."

The Courant  is Connecticut's largest daily newspaper. The paper has been publishing since 1764.