divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/93280?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Thai+protesters+to+end+airport+siege+after+court+rulingch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Thailand+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+MacKinnonc7=2008_12_03c8=1127759c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Thailandc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FThailand" width="1" height="1" //divpAnti-government protesters in Thailand signalled the end of their siege of Bangkok's international airport yesterday, hours after a court disbanded the ruling party and banned the prime minister from office. The People's Alliance for Democracy, which had demanded that the prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, quit and the government step down, claimed victory and said it would today end its week-long sit-in, which has left 300,000 foreign travellers stranded./ppBut uncertainty surrounded the resumption of flights at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport. The airport director said he could not decide the restart date until sensitive systems had been examined./ppThe sudden end to the dramatic standoff that has paralysed the country's lucrative tourist industry caught observers by surprise. The court's decision is unlikely to dramatically alter Thailand's political landscape, which is riven with divisions./ppThe ruling also raised the spectre of street violence after government supporters angered by the judges' decision surrounded the Bangkok court and refused to allow the judiciary to leave. Hours earlier a grenade was thrown at Bangkok's barricaded domestic terminal, Don Muang, killing one demonstrator and injuring 22./ppJudges from the constitutional court found the People Power party (PPP) and two senior coalition partners guilty of electoral fraud for vote buying in last December's general election and barred the prime minister from office for five years. Another 59 executives from the three parties were also banned from political office, among them 24 MPs who will have to resign their seats./ppImmediately after the decision to disband the PPP and the Machima Thipatai and Chart Thai parties, Somchai said he would abide by the rule of law and stand aside, describing it as "not a problem. I was not working for myself. Now I will be a full time citizen"./ppThe ruling coalition's six parties immediately said they would reform under a new banner, a move not barred by the constitution. The PPP's surviving MPs are to join Puea Thai (For Thailand) and choose a new prime minister next week./ppBut the PAD leadership embraced the court's decision, perhaps grabbing an opportunity to save face and remove itself from the airport siege that has seen its backing among Thailand's metropolitan monarchist-elite dwindling./pp"We have finished our duty," said the PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul, who had branded the government a proxy of the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "If a puppet government returns or a new government shows its insincerity in pushing for political reform, we will return."/ppThe warning and the government supporters' decision to continue their own protests against yesterday's court ruling herald the prospect of further turmoil, though both sides will take a breather for King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 81st birthday celebrations in two days./pp"The divisions are so deep, it's difficult to see how it could be over," said Giles Ungpakhorn, a political analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, who described the court ruling as a "judicial coup" to strip the PPP of power. /ppBut for the tourists stranded by the stalemate that began a week ago, the departure of the thousands of PAD supporters comes as a huge relief. The first cargo aircraft left Suvarnabhumi yesterday afternoon after an agreement with the PAD, helping to reduce the economic distress of lost export earnings costing Thailand pound;53m each day. /ppThe acting head of Thailand's airports authority, Serirat Prasutanont, said he would be able to make a statement later today about when Suvarnabhumi could return to normal./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/thailand"Thailand/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/q77aE3I7XIpLVrETxpzz_sFX-A4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/q77aE3I7XIpLVrETxpzz_sFX-A4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/30491?ns=guardianpageName=Comment+is+free%3A+In+this+recession%2C+we+want+comfort+culture+to+go+with+our+comfort+foodch=Comment+is+freec3=The+Guardianc4=Recession+%28UK%29%2CEconomic+growth+and+recession+US%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CTesco+%28Business%29%2CSupermarkets+%28business%29%2CRetail+industry+%28Business%29%2CFilm%2CStage%2CCulture+section%2CBusinessc5=Credit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CTheatrec6=Jonathan+Freedlandc7=2008_12_03c8=1127725c9=articlec10=GUc11=Comment+is+freec12=blogc13=c14=Comment+is+freeh2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" //divpMan cannot live by bread alone - he also needs some shepherd's pie and a dollop of rice pudding. That, at least, is the word from Tesco, reporting an extraordinary surge in sales of comfort food. As we feel the first chill of the recession, and as American economists declare that the downturn in the United States began a full year ago, making the current slump already longer than the average recession since the second world war, the supermarket chain has noticed a run on its cosiest products./ppSales of lamb hotpot are up 615% on this time last year, while beef casserole and dumplings have leapt by 279%. Deep-filled pies are selling at more than double the usual rate, as is cheesecake. Hot cakes are selling like hot cakes. /ppCould that be down to the wintry weather rather than the frozen economy? No. Tesco saw the boom in reassuring ready meals and cosy grub during the period from May to October. This isn't about staying warm, says the store, along with other retailers who've noticed a similar pattern on their shelves. It's about Britons cheering themselves up, padding their tummies as they tighten their belts. And notice the dishes in demand: traditional British fare, as if we're fleeing scary global economic forces, seeking refuge in the familiar smells of mum's kitchen and school dinners./ppSo much for what we're putting into our stomachs as the economy plunges downward, with most forecasters expecting the thud to come once the fleeting lift of Christmas is over. What will happen to our other appetites, those located not in our mouths but between our ears? What is the brainfood we'll be seeking out as times get tougher? Put simply, what's likely to be the culture of this recession?/ppNot so different from the food, as it happens. While Waitrose reports an 80% increase in sales of loaf cakes, ITV is cheering a rise in the television equivalent: viewing figures for I'm A Celebrity are up on last year. The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing are doing a roaring trade too. And what has just become Britain's fastest-ever selling DVD? Mamma Mia!./ppThink of it as comfort culture to accompany the comfort food. We want to be eased through the freeze, and Ant and Dec can be relied on to do that just as effectively as a slice of steak and kidney pie./ppOf course, this habit has a long history. Cinema audiences developed the desire to be transported into mindless escapism, watching Busby Berkeley's synchronised swimmers make pretty shapes in the depths of the Great Depression. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made their top-hatted and ballgowned debut in 1933, the same year unemployment in the US hit 25%. If today's audiences are blocking out all thoughts of the credit crunch in favour of watching Meryl Streep play the Dancing Queen on a sun-kissed Greek island where the skies are permanently blue, they are doing no more than honouring a tradition started by their grandparents. /ppBut it's not all mindless. Brucie and Cheryl Cole are far from the only cultural providers experiencing a boom during the bust. In a declining newspaper market, the Financial Times and the Guardian both saw their sales rise as the financial crisis hit. (The number crunchers on the Guardian's website have seen big increases - led by serious news, with massive leaps in interest in business stories.) Richard Reeves, director of the thinktank Demos, says he has spotted three different people reading JK Galbraith's The Great Crash on his morning train to work. "People want more entertainment," he says, "but they also want more enlightenment."/ppIt seems we either want to escape the current turmoil or understand it. The latter might not always mean digesting dense economic tracts. Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National Theatre, has noticed the spectacular response the musical Billy Elliot has just received on Broadway. A tale of declining industry, hardship and the threat of joblessness, "It acknowledges pain, individual achievement in overcoming that pain and collective solidarity in the face of it," Hytner told me yesterday, suggesting that Billy Elliot had come at just the right moment for New York theatregoers. He has no plans to stage either a feelgood musical at the National - there will be no "sugar rush of escapism" - or an instant play about the recession. That kind of second-guessing of the audience never works, he says./ppStill, artworks that offer neither escapism nor explanation might struggle in the great freeze. There will surely be a diminished appetite for miserable stories that don't even offer the consolation of enhanced understanding of the upheaval. I'm told there were an unusually high number of empty seats at the Oxford Playhouse when the touring production of Liberty, set in the France of 1793, arrived this autumn. Apparently people weren't in the mood to spend an evening contemplating Robespierre's Terror. (Users of guardian.co.uk were similarly reluctant to wallow in the details of the Baby P case.)/ppTwo big movies were released last week: Four Christmases, a light comedy with Reese Witherspoon, went straight to number one. Trailing behind it was The Changeling, Angelina Jolie's grim tale of a mother's search for a missing child. Similarly, it will be fascinating to see if the publishing subgenre known as "misery lit" continues to enjoy its past dominance of the bestsellers list. Right now, the hardback non-fiction top 10 is entirely made up of the comfort food of celebrity biography, topped by Dawn French's Dear Fatty - surely the literary equivalent of a sticky toffee pudding./ppThere are other clues to the cultural future besides the twin paths marked escape or understand. Price is one. Just as local pizzerias are holding up while posh restaurants expect to struggle, so culture that comes cheap has better prospects for survival. Sky subscriptions and DVD sales are so far weathering the recession. When you're counting the pennies, a ready meal and a film on the telly suddenly looks like a good bet./ppParadoxically, that could tilt the landscape towards high culture. If government subsidies get cut, many in the arts predict it will be smaller, grassroots projects that feel the knife: they're easier to slice than the heavy-hitting opera companies and art galleries. And while commercial theatre might take a pounding, the major subsidised institutions will still be left standing. /ppBut what if things get really severe? Reading could make a comeback, predicts John Carey, former Merton Professor of English at Oxford. In the 1930s, he says, some of the poorest turned to books for diversion. "Reading is astoundingly cheap," he says. "Libraries must be the cheapest form of entertainment possible." Classics were especially popular: they were inexpensive and available. "Social histories of the time are full of references to Dickens," says Carey./ppStill, the biggest cultural impact of the recession may be unseen for decades to come. Hytner notes that the great plays of the depression era - by Arthur Miller or Clifford Odets - came years later. It is the children of the slump, those witnessing their parents losing their jobs or businesses, who we should be watching. The seed of their future work is being planted right now. /ppa href="mailto:freedland@guardian.co.uk"br /freedland@guardian.co.uk/a/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession"Recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomicgrowth"US economic growth and recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/tesco"Tesco/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/supermarkets"Supermarkets/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/retail"Retail industry/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YJLdrZRupLEbqAyvMC8RCxJtgGk/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YJLdrZRupLEbqAyvMC8RCxJtgGk/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Welcome to the "bear-cession." Not all bear markets have been caused by or accompany recessions but 2008 is clearly a year marked by both turmoil in the stock markets and the broader economy.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~4/mrxk8LL4OBo" height="1" width="1"/

General Electric (GE), the American conglomerate, cut its four-quarter earnings guidance but insisted that it was committed to its financial services business despite the turmoil in global financial markets.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/9118?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Thailand+PM+stripped+of+power+as+court+finds+government+guilty+of+corruptionch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Thailand+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+MacKinnonc7=2008_12_02c8=1127347c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Thailandc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FThailand" width="1" height="1" //divpThe political crisis that has paralysed Thailand and stranded as many as 300,000 international travellers took a dramatic turn today when a court disbanded the ruling party and banned the prime minister from office./ppJudges from the constitutional court found the People Power party (PPP) and two senior coalition partners guilty of electoral fraud for vote-buying in last December's general election and barred the prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, from office for five years./ppBut hopes that an altered political landscape might satisfy the anti-government protesters and bring a swift end to the week-long blockade at Bangkok's two airports were dimmed when the ruling coalition's six parties signalled their intention to reform under a new banner./ppThe ruling also raised the spectre of street violence after government supporters angered by the judges' widely expected decision surrounded the Bangkok court and refused to allow the judiciary to leave the building./ppOvernight, a grenade was thrown from a flyover near Bangkok's barricaded domestic Don Muang terminal, killing one person and injuring 22 other sleeping protesters./ppAnalysts portrayed the situation on the ground as extremely volatile, while others said the judges' decision made with uncharacteristic haste was tantamount to a covert coup through which a royalist-military elite sought to strip the elected government of power./pp"Thailand is in the middle of a crisis," said Sunai Thasuk, of Human Rights Watch, who was at the courthouse. "The government supporters are very, very upset. The climate is very volatile and both sides have been known to use violence against each other. It's a highly dangerous situation."/ppBritons caught by the shutdown of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International airport a week ago told of their fears over the political turmoil, and mounting frustrations over their inability to find a way to leave the country./ppBut one glimmer of hope came as the international airport today reopened to cargo flights, reducing the economic impact of lost export earnings, estimated to be £53m daily./ppDemonstrators for the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy, who invaded Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang to demand the government quit and Somchai step down, were overjoyed when they heard the verdict./pp"My heart is happy," said Pailin Jampapong, 41, choking back tears of joy among the throng at Suvarnabhumi. "My friends are very happy."/ppImmediately after the decision to disband the PPP, Machima Thipatai and Chart Thai parties, Somchai said he would abide by the rule of law and stand aside, describing it as "not a problem. I was not working for myself. Now I will be a full-time citizen."/ppBut the ruling that bans Somchai and 36 party executives and MPs does not prevent the PPP rump reforming. They immediately signalled they would move to the new party of Puea Thai (For Thailand) - a measure not barred by the constitution./ppThe former minister Jakrapob Penkair, a close confidante of the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said the court's decision came as no surprise. "Our members are determined to move on and we will form a government again out of the majority that we believe we still have," he said./ppBut Giles Ungpakorn, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, accused the "fascist Pad", judges and the monarchist-military elite in the capital of staging a "judicial coup" to rob the rural poor government supporters of their rights./pp"The majority of the Thai population, who are poor, face a double whammy," he said. "First, the elite royalists are doing everything possible to take away their basic democratic rights. Secondly, mass job losses are occurring among workers in the tourist industry as a result of the airport blockade. The Pad protesters are middle-class extremists who don't have to go to work."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/thailand"Thailand/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/SGJm_pjvkSjlpsey6JBrvpzIE2w/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/SGJm_pjvkSjlpsey6JBrvpzIE2w/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/26782?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Markets+sink+as+recession+in+US+is+confirmedch=Businessc3=guardian.co.ukc4=US+economy+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CMarket+turmoil%2CGlobal+economy+%28Business%29%2CInterest+rates+%28Business%29c5=Credit+Crunch%2CBusiness+Markets%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Rates%2CUS+Economyc6=Dan+Milmoc7=2008_12_01c8=1127207c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=US+economyc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FUS+economy" width="1" height="1" //divpConfirmation that the US is in recession shook Wall Street tonight and set the Dow Jones industrial average on course to end a five-day winning streak./ppThe Dow fell 445 points to 8384 by the afternoon, a drop of 5%. Shareholders balked at an announcement by the National Bureau of Economic Research that the US economy entered recession in December last year. /ppBen Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said today that further interest rate cuts were "feasible" but the scope to bring the key Fed funds rate below its current 1% was "obviously limited". /ppAnswering audience questions after a speech to business leaders in Austin, Texas, Bernanke said more constraints on risk-taking by large financial institutions were needed to ease the problem of banks being "too big to fail". /ppLimiting the risk-taking of institutions to "feasible" levels would mean "we don't privatise the profits and socialise the losses," Bernanke said. "We need a better system for resolving failing institutions," he added. This may include similar mechanisms to deal with problems at companies outside the banking sector./ppThe NBER's business cycle-dating committee gave Bernanke and his colleagues more bad news to digest when rates are discussed on December 15 by announcing that the US was in recession. The committee, which defines recession as "a significant decline in activity spread across the economy" and is considered an official arbiter of the economic cycle, said the downturn began last December as firms started to shed jobs in large numbers./pp"The committee determined the decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession," said the privately owned group. President Bush expressed contrition over the downturn yesterday. In an interview with the ABC television network, he said: "I'm sorry it's happening, of course. Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs." He added authorities would intervene if the financial system suffered further difficulties, after the Fed and US treasury bailed out Citigroup and nationalised mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. /pp"The American people have got to know that we will safeguard the system," the president said./ppThe Dow fell yesterday morning before the NBER statement, following factory output data for November that showed the weakest activity since 1982. /ppInitial optimism about a strong start to the shopping season also appeared to evaporate as retail stocks were hammered on concerns that heavily discounted sales would hit profits. The SP 500 and Nasdaq indices were off by more than 6%./ppMarket-watchers said the Dow would have struggled to retain recent gains because hedge funds are still dumping assets to pay investors who are withdrawing funds, and to settle bank loans. /pp"I don't know of a single investment strategist who thinks that we are at the beginning of a bull market. It looks like it will be a long recession," said Brian Gendreau, of ING Investment Management in New York./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy"US economy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marketturmoil"Market turmoil/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/globaleconomy"Global economy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/interestrates"Interest rates/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/r1_Gs_wICuhqUud18l1RR5NriT0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/r1_Gs_wICuhqUud18l1RR5NriT0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/etc/" rel="tag"Etc./a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/euro/" rel="tag"Euro/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/chrysler/" rel="tag"Chrysler, LLC./a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/ford/" rel="tag"Ford/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/gm/" rel="tag"GM/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/porsche/" rel="tag"Porsche/a/pa href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/27/porsche-cars-germany-business-news"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/wied_uscom_sup.jpg" //aLittle guy Porsche is taking huge swings, and not just at the giant that is Volkswagen. Porsche head Wendelin Wiedeking had fierce Teutonic words for General Motors and Ford, and banks. His emRindfleisch/em - beef, that is - with U.S. automakers is that, through unsound practices, they have thrown absolutely everything into turmoil. In the words of the Guardian, in fact, they have driven "the industry to the brink of ruin." br /br /Those are big and perhaps hyperbolic words. But he then singles out GM for "openly threatening" the U.S. Government with bankruptcy, and predicts a hedge fund will take control of "one of the U.S. car manufacturers." Since Chrysler is already controlled by a hedge fund, that only leaves GM and Ford as the possible subjects of that comment. We can't imagine a hedge fund trying to swallow GM or Ford, especially after Cerberus has taken such a beating with Chrysler that seemingly all they can say is "Must... find... the exit."br /br /Wiedeking is on more Earthly ground when he talks about the little guys, suppliers, who are quietly going under -- even though many of them ran their business correctly -- due to the banks' refusal to lend money while the clash of automotive titans continues. In a quote that people in many different industries can applaud, he says "We need banks to give credit, not just talk about credit ratings but start real actual lending to companies." Amen. emThanks for the tip, Sonny!/embr /br /[Source: a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/27/porsche-cars-germany-business-news"The Guardian/a]p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/01/porsche-head-predicts-a-hedge-fund-will-swallow-gm-or-ford/"Porsche head predicts a hedge fund will swallow GM or Ford/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:01:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/27/porsche-cars-germany-business-newsRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/01/porsche-head-predicts-a-hedge-fund-will-swallow-gm-or-ford/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1384783/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/01/porsche-head-predicts-a-hedge-fund-will-swallow-gm-or-ford/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/nKvjP3CysbcATdne4Kbmi17unXY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/nKvjP3CysbcATdne4Kbmi17unXY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=pouE9Pzw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=pouE9Pzw" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=ChjAw7FG"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=ChjAw7FG" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/7bdxl-oZBhY" height="1" width="1"/

pAfter weeks of denials and a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-huffpo-raises-15-million-expansion-in-face-of-high-cash-burn" title=""no comments,"""no comments,"/a political blog a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/" title="The Huffington Post"The Huffington Post/a has closed a $25 million third round funding from Oak Investment Partners, the company said in an e-mailed press release this morning. We a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-huffpo-raises-15-million-expansion-in-face-of-high-cash-burn" title="reported earlier"reported earlier/a about a $20 million and above round with post-money valuation in the $110 million range. This probably puts it right at $115 million. /p p The company said it planned to use the proceeds to support general growth efforts and for "focused acquisitions." HuffPo also wants to build up its in-house ad sales team, as even the internet is succumbing to the wider economic turmoil. The three-year-old HuffPo had previously raised roughly $12 million from Softbank Capital, Greycroft Partners, co-founder Ken Lerer and Bob Pittman. /p p On the content side, the $25 million will go towards the jump-starting of a new investigative journalism initiative, expanding its video offerings and ba rollout of local versions of the HuffPo aimed at an unspecified number of cities/b. It already has a a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chicago/" title="Chicago-centric site"Chicago-centric site/a. The funding comes as HuffPo says farewell to what appears to have been a successful and long campaign season. With interest in politics expected to wane compared to the height of its election coverage, HuffPo hopes to become known for more than its left-leaning politics coverage, by building on its other sections, which include media, living, style and green. While broadening its content should attract more advertisers, this is a tough time on the local ad front, as Borrell Associates and other analysts have a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-the-local-online-ad-locomotive-slows-little-or-no-growth-in-08-borrell" title="pointed out"pointed out/a that the growth in that area had and will continue to slow down considerably. /p p In conjunction with the funding, Oak Investment's Fred Harman is joining HuffPo's board. Harman said in a statement: "Much of the news media business needs to be reassembled online around an ad-supported model and the timetable for this has been accelerated, not slowed, by this economic down cycle." /p pstrongRelated/strong/p ul class="related" lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-huffpo-raises-15-million-expansion-in-face-of-high-cash-burn" title="Update: HuffPo Finishing On $20M Round, Oak and Others; $110 Million Valuation Ballpark"Update: HuffPo Finishing On $20M Round, Oak and Others; $110 Million Valuation Ballpark/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-huffingtonpost-raises-another-5-million-same-investors-including-pittma" title="HuffingtonPost Raises Another $5 Million; Same Investors Including Pittman"HuffingtonPost Raises Another $5 Million; Same Investors Including Pittman/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/huffingtonpostcom-does-close-5-million-funding-led-by-softbank" title="HuffingtonPost.com Does Close $5 Million Funding; Led By Softbank"HuffingtonPost.com Does Close $5 Million Funding; Led By Softbank/a/li /ul p!-- iMark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. a href="http://content.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=000010cb0000000000000000/SITE=PC_US/AAMSZ=PREMB_NEWS/relocate=http://marklogicdps.eventbrite.com/"Register now!/a/i --/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=sw9xir"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=sw9xir" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=ZmAMO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=ZmAMO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=2uEKO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=2uEKO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=9olCo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=9olCo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=53EvO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=53EvO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=SXJeO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=SXJeO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/471328664" height="1" width="1"/