Bright and early this morning Gorkana held a breakfast briefing with The Huffington Post UK editor-in-chief Carla Buzasi. I grabbed Carla after the event and asked her to recap her top PR tips for our blog visitors.

Top PR Tips from The Huffington Post:

•  The Huffington Post UK will live blog any big, changing news. Live blogs don’t have to have an international angle, but must be multi-faceted in interest
• 1000 bloggers are currently signed up and there are 14 full-time journalists (becoming 16 by the end of the month)

“We did all our journalist recruitment through Gorkana” – Carla Buzasi

• HuffPo UK bloggers are not exclusive to the site  and can direct readers to content hosted on their own blogs. There are no deadlines or briefs for bloggers
• The parenting section of the site, ParentDish, is doing well and is set to grow and grow

“The Huffington Post UK blogging platform is groundswell up. My sister and both my parents blog for us” – Carla Buzasi

• Operating hours are 6am to midnight, seven days a week. The US site will cover breaking news stories outside of these times. PRs should call with big breaking news only first thing in the morning. Entertainment stories should be sent mid-morning

• Carla should be sent only big, overarching stories. More focused stories should be sent to the relevant editor (entertainment, politics etc.)

“In the US The Huffington Post want video content for every article. We’re not there yet in the UK. We need a unique supply line” – Carla Buzasi

• The business editor will start early October and comes from CNBC. The media editor is yet to be recruited but should be in position by the end of October
• HuffPo UK is not like The Guardian’s Comment is Free blog, where journalists are writing the posts. HuffPo UK has politicians, media commentators and students publishing posts on the same stage
• The revenue stream includes: AOL search properties, online ads, branded blogs, and sponsored comments and galleries
• HuffPo UK is looking for a media partner for the Green Awards later in the year. ‘Green’ stories fall under the remit of the news and politics editors
• Bloggers are not employed by HuffPo UK and their contact details are protected. PRs should contact editors with relevant stories and these will be passed to the bloggers
• If you are a PR wanting to write a guest blog post, don’t hide who you work for. You’ll be pulled up on it and HuffPo UK will get flack. Also, make sure you have an opinion and don’t treat the post like a press release