Arianna Showers Cash, Credit on the Serfs

Who said Arianna Huffington is a robber baron? Well, this guy, for one. But he won't be saying it much longer: In a Portfolio web feature, my colleague Sam Gustin reveals that the Huffington Post principal "is toying with a revenue-sharing model that would let her bloggers direct a portion of the site's ad revenue to a charity of their choice."

Interesting! While I'm somewhat partial to my own suggestion -- turn Huffpo into a non-profit -- this strikes me as an elegant way to retain the amateur, town-square flavor of the site while diffusing accusations of exploiting unpaid workers for profit. No doubt Felix Salmon will tell me all the reasons why I'm wrong, but in the meantime I'm declaring this a potential PR coup.

Speaking of giving writers their due, Huffpo quietly made another move several weeks ago intended to quell internal complaints: It added a masthead. Previously, the editors and reporters who toil in the company's SoHo offices had been all but anonymous -- a state of affairs that fed into the staff unrest you may have read about elsewhere.

But don't bother looking for managing editor Elinor Shields there. Hired away from the BBC with considerable fanfare in January to be the site's No. 3 editor (after Huffington and editor Roy Sekoff), Shields was fired about three weeks ago, say sources. A Huffpo spokesman confirms that she's no longer onboard but says, "We don't as a matter of policy comment on employees."