Huffington Post buys Pollster.com from YouGov Polimetrix

Editor and publisher Mark Blumenthal blogged the news after it was first reported by the New York Times.

In a short update, Blumenthal said: “The change will ultimately supercharge everything we do. If you are a fan of Pollster.com, I assure you that what you like will stay the same, including our mission, editorial voice and commitment to providing a forum for better understanding poll results, survey methods and the polling controversies of the day.

“What will improve will be the overall quality of our site, the power of our interactive charting tools and even greater efforts to promote transparency and disclosure of polling methods.”

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington has had an uneasy relationship with polls and pollsters in the past. In the run-up to the 2008 US presidential election campaign she initiated a project via the Post’s website to encourage poll respondents to report their experiences of being surveyed.

“We want to get to the bottom of how pollsters conduct their surveys, how they gather and build their stats, how they target who they contact, and, ultimately, how they reach their conclusions,” she said at the time.

Talking to the NY Times yesterday, Huffington said: “Polling, whether we like it or not, is a big part of how we communicate about politics. And with this [acquisition of Pollster.com], we’ll be able to do it in a deeper way. We’ll be able to both aggregate polls, point out the limitations of them and demand more transparency.”

Pollster.com’s takeover by the Huffington Post follows the signing recently of a content-sharing deal between FiveThirtyEight, a rival poll analysis site, and the NY Times. Previously Pollster.com had a similar content-sharing arrangement with the National Journal, but that has now ended.