HuffPost turns 20 this year. In honor of our anniversary, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the most interesting, wild and iconic moments from the last two decades. Join us for a walk down memory lane!
2005: The Huffington Post is founded by Arianna Huffington, Jonah Peretti, Kenneth Lerer and others.
Early writers included Lawrence O’Donnell, Nora Ephron, Larry David, Diane Keaton and Alec Baldwin.
2006: The Huffington Post makes a name for itself as one of the few outlets at the time to treat global warming as a real threat and openly celebrate marriage equality.
2008: A Huffington Post blogger breaks the story of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s “guns and religion” quote.
Mayhill Fowler reported Obama’s comments that small-town voters “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” The New York Times wrote at the time that the comments “created an instant sensation in the media.”
2008: Barack Obama writes his first post for the site.
He was a candidate for office at the time and would go on to contribute several times during his presidency.
2008: Obama is elected and calls on The Huffington Post in the press room, the first time a sitting president has called on a web-only outlet.
“But also sitting in the front row at Obama’s press conference were Sam Stein, a 26-year-old class of ’07 graduate of Columbia Journalism School who works for the Huffington Post,” Time wrote in 2008. “By calling on Stein on such a big stage, Obama is continuing to work the message that this is not a traditional presidency, that he is not averse to working with those outside the establishment.”
2009: The Huffington Post’s pre-inaugural ball draws celebrities like will.i.am, Sting and Sheryl Crow.
The star-studded event at D.C.’s Newseum drew approximately 2,800 guests. Sting was one of the featured performers at the party.
2010: The Huffington Post launches its divorce section under Editor-at-Large Nora Ephron.
2011: AOL acquires The Huffington Post.
2011: The Huffington Post launches its iconic LGBTQ+ vertical, Gay Voices.
It later rebranded to Queer Voices.
2012: The Huffington Post launches HuffPost Live.
The streaming platform offered an alternative to traditional TV news.
2012: The Huffington Post wins a Pulitzer Prize.
“Beyond the Battlefield,” a 10-part investigation by David Wood into the trauma faced by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, won in the National Reporting category.
2013: Obama spars with The Huffington Post over his nomination for chair of the Federal Reserve.
The Huffington Post published a series of columns criticizing Larry Summers, who was then in contention to head the Federal Reserve. Obama fired back, telling lawmakers “not to believe everything you read in The Huffington Post.” Still, Summers ended up withdrawing his candidacy.
2014: The Huffington Post stages a counterprotest against Westboro Baptist Church at its New York office.
2015: The Huffington Post lights up the Empire State Building green for its 10-year anniversary.
“Our position is to look at issues through the public interest,” Arianna Huffington told CNN Business at the time.
2016: The Huffington Post Union organizes with the Writers Guild of America East and receives voluntary recognition.
It was the largest digital media outlet to unionize at the time. The watershed moment helped catalyze employees at similar outlets to organize.
2016: Jennifer Aniston publishes her famous blog post, “For The Record.”
“For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up,” she wrote. “I’m fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of ‘journalism,’ the ‘First Amendment’ and ‘celebrity news.’”
2016: The Huffington Post’s story on heroin addiction, “Dying to Be Free,” is a Pulitzer finalist
This story, by Jason Cherkis, asked why the U.S. continued to shy away from medication-assisted treatments for heroin addiction in favor of traditional rehab.
2016: Arianna Huffington steps down as editor-in-chief.
“Great companies always succeed beyond their founder,” she said at the time. “Even though HuffPost bears my name, it is absolutely about all of you and about this amazing team we’ve been for over 11 years.”
2017: New Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen rebrands the site as HuffPost.
“Sometimes it’s a good idea just to embrace the name that your audience has chosen. It’s shorter, it’s snappier and gets us a more compact look,” she said at the time.
2017: HuffPosters drive a bus across America on a reader listening tour.
“Listen To America” brought HuffPost reporters and editors to small towns and large cities to talk about the issues facing everyday Americans.
2018: HuffPost Life launches.
The section focuses on expert-backed advice and real-life experiences to offer a no-nonsense guide to modern living.
2021: A HuffPost reporter publishes widely viewed video from inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection
The highly viral video, captured by Igor Bobic, showed Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman confronting rioters.
2021: BuzzFeed acquires HuffPost.
2021: Danielle Belton joins HuffPost as its new editor-in-chief.
2022: HuffPost begins to relaunch its iconic Voices sections, including Queer Voices, Black Voices, Disabled Voices and Indigenous Voices.
2022: “Am I Doing It Wrong?” launches.
The wildly popular HuffPost podcast explores the all-too-human anxieties we have about trying to get our lives right — from saying sorry to casual hookups to fighting climate change — and enlists experts and guests with big opinions to debate and strategize the best ways to tackle everything that’s constantly thrown at us. (You can listen here.)
2025: HuffPost launches a membership program.
The tiered program invites readers to partner with the newsroom and support its coverage. Contributors at certain tiers receive exclusive merch and an ad-free experience on the site.
2025: Whitney Snyder is named HuffPost’s new editor-in-chief.
“It’s an honor to be leading this newsroom that has shaped me as an editor, leader and person. HuffPost’s role is more vital today than ever, and readers need a news outlet that is loud, direct, honest and interesting, that isn’t afraid to tell it to them straight,” he said.
2025: The Trump administration erupts at HuffPost.
President Donald Trump has taken aim at HuffPost multiple times during his administration. First, he told a reporter he thought we were dead, and then he kicked a reporter out of the press pool. But we’re very much alive — and ready to fearlessly report for the next 20 years and beyond.