Huffington Post
Rather than fight The New York Times over the right to use Parentlode for Lisa Belkin’s new parenting blog, The Huffington Post is “happily leaving the name in the sandbox, where the Times can play with it all by itself,” says Arianna Huffington in a statement. Belkin moved to HuffPost two months ago from the Times, where her blog was called Motherlode.
The Times filed a lawsuit to prevent use of the similar-sounding name. Belkin announced today that HuffPost will let them have it, in the interest of family harmony:
We could keep fighting the suit, over a name that, frankly, we never really loved. It would be an intriguing fight — a chance to address the very new question of whether a blog is its title and location, or its “voice” and content. But that would involve my hanging around town next week with a bunch of lawyers, preparing for a deposition of me demanded by the Times, rather than attending my mother’s wedding in Arizona. Mom is not keen on that idea.
The blog’s new name will come from its readers; the winner gets a trip to New York and — “to show there are no hard feelings” — a digital subscription to The New York Times.
Statement from Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group:
As Lisa Belkin writes today: “The New York Times has been a little cranky” about the name of her HuffPost blog, Parentlode. So we’re happily leaving the name in the sandbox, where the Times can play with it all by itself. We look forward to starting the year in a productive way rather than in depositions, and we can’t wait to see all of the new and improved names that our community of readers comes up with for Lisa’s blog.
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