Major Announcement - Burlingame Voice To Merge!

The Editorial Board of the Burlingame Voice is announcing an agreement to merge its intensely local blog with the newly combined AOL/Huffington Post/Patch.com properties.  After the February 7th announcement by AOL and the HuffPo and the subsequent move to put Arianna Huffington in charge of the Patch.com properties, AOL knew that it had to up its game in term of true, experienced local reporting.

The Board has agreed to sell the BurlingameVoice.com property to AOL for $375,000 plus a three year retainer and will immediately donate 50% of the net proceeds to various local charities.  The decisions on which charities will be determined by nominations from long-time Voice bloggers including Ron F., Holyroller, Anne, Scheherazade, Two Cents, A Little Bird, KRN, Fred, JF, Pat G., Jeff, Jennifer, Mr. Slate, Boogeyman, Been Around, Chianglo and Lorne.

AOL spokesman Seymour Argent noted "The Burlingame Voice is an incredible example of what true community interaction can deliver.  As a non-profit blog it has blown away all for-profit competitors and we believe we can commercialize it without losing the flavor that has made it successful."

The deal is expected to close on May Day when the current TypePad platform will be migrated to a union-maintained, TARP-subsidized, LEEDS compliant, platform with frequent spammers like Nike, Coach, Ugg and Supra as inital sponsors.  Blog on!

 

Comments

[Boogeyman]

If this isn't a crafty April Fool's joke, then I nominate Call Primrose for a recipient of some money.

Thank you.

[Mike]

Great sponsors! I think bgvoice is worth way more than that...well over a million.

[ron fulderon]

I suggest you donate to the retirement funds for all the Burlingame civil servants - working and retired. They can use it to take more trips to Tahiti and maybe bump up the air fare to First Class (aka Government Worker Retiree Class), too.

[fred]

Topix picked this up as an actual news story.

And I vote Fiona should decide the charities.

[jennifer]

I have to admit, I fell for this one-- 'read it three times.

Very funny--!

[Anne]

Honored to be "included" in the prank!
Cheers to all!

[Newbie]

Who's Fiona?

[Scheherezade Sharabianlou]

Ha! Ha! It was too good to be true! $375,000?! You need more bloggers than just us to get that much. However, I personally think any "Voice" worth a lot more than $375,000. Ariana should pay a lot more for the only "Voice" in Burlingame that is not rehearsed and it is actually heard. The "Voice" which is for brave bloggers who put their "Voice" in writing! Joe, keep up the "Voice". You only need to donate 40% of the proceed to get the largest tax break! Keep the rest and enjoy!

Scheherezade

[Tech Support]

Burlingame Voice is now controlled by the radical left. Huffington Post is a bad organization and pollutes the political environment in America. Time to find a new Voice for Burlingame.

Lets see: AOL is a bankrupt software company who cant even get a sane person to take their FREE AOL Desktop software and now they buy a Huffington Post, a radical left media organization and we are suppose to feel GOOD. LOL. Lets find some new volunteers to create a solid PRO Burlingame and PRO America voice

[Halley Torrenson]

What a disaster.. Huffington AOL merger is bankrupt. Nice call to merge you idiots.

[Hillsider]

Try to stay with the class Halley. April Fool's

[Joe]

I got a good laugh out of this April Fool's post, but I was also reminded of it when I read in the Wall Street Journal that AOL will be scaling way back on its Patch investment. According to yesterday's article, AOL will be closing or finding partners for 400 of its 900 sites and laying off between 250 and 500 of its 1,100 staffers after having already cut 25% of its cost base earlier this year.

[Russ]

I remember reading this article back in 2010. I guess they were right about their thoughts that the Patch business model did not make any sense.

http://www.businessinsider.com/aols-patch-revenue-model-makes-no-sense-2010-5