News and opinion site The Huffington Post today announced the launch of “Twitter editions” of each of the site’s 19 sections, with a Twitter edition of the main page coming soon.

Co-founder and editor Arianna Huffington said that as more readers are using Twitter to get their news, a Twitter edition of the Post is a “natural next step.” From the press release (download as PDF):

“The speed and immediacy of Twitter’s constantly-refreshing feeds is a perfect fit with our blend of real-time news, opinion, and community. Our Twitter editions are a great tool for those already using Twitter — and a great introduction to what Twitter has to offer for those who aren’t.”

Each of the Twitter edition pages start off with a few top stories such as you’d have on the regular section’s page. Then, below the fold are two live twitterfeeds collating tweets (via Twitter’s list functionality, it appears) from prominent reporters, pundits, insiders and other source tweeps. Further down the page is the Hot on Twitter section. There’s also a widget for readers to tweet from the page. Examples: Business, Politics, Tech.

Given HuffPo’s traditions of social media adoption and news aggregation, this integration with Twitter — the world’s potentially biggest real-time social news source — is not surprising in theory. However, in execution, the scale at which HuffPo has co-opted Twitter is pretty incredible.

As Huffington Post chairman Ken Lerer told PaidContent earlier this morning:

“We think it’s reasonable to assume that there will be more and more Twitter users; we think it’s here to stay. As more users get accustomed to it, this will be a way that users will increasingly seek their news from our site. I can see people coming to the main site and going to the Twitter editions. Eventually, I can see people just going to the Twitter edition instead of the main Huffington Post sites and verticals. Ultimately, it will end up being as significant an addition to The Huffington Post as we’ve made to date.”

Why not just change the name to Huffingtweet Post?

This move is especially bold considering that in just a few days, at the Chirp conference, Twitter executives are expected to finally answer the long-asked question, “How will Twitter begin making money?”

What do you think of Huffington Post’s Twitter editions? Smart? Revolutionary? Premature? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Free blogs, inexpensive hosting, DIY website building, social networking, free online retail …

Today, the sky’s the limit when it comes to building up your own website, blog, business or online media channel on the cheap and making it profitable.

Cory Doctorow would know. With inspiration and lots of hard work, the journalist and sci-fi author built his tech-oriented blog Boing Boing into a business valued at $18 million, and there are many like him.

In a recent essay for Locus magazine, Doctorow explains why this works: It’s rock and roll. Or, close enough, at least.

Comparing new media to cheap and dirty rock and roll and traditional media to weighty, expensive orchestral music (though he could have just as easily contrasted punk with mainstream music — the choice in analogy isn’t the point), Doctorow breaks down the formula to something we can get behind: Why spend tons of money making something good when you can make something almost as good for the fraction of the cost?

If the Internet has a motif, it is rock ‘n’ roll’s Protestant Reformation thrashing against the orchestral One Church. Rock ‘n’ roll gets lots of wee kirks built in every hill and dale in which parishioners can find religion in their own ways; choral music erects majestic cathedrals that humble and amaze, but take three generations of laborers to build.

The interesting bit isn’t what it costs to replicate some big, pre-Internet business or project.

The interesting bit is what it costs to do something half as well as some big, pre-Internet business or project.

Take Newsweek. If you wanted to launch Newsweek today, you’d probably have to spend as much as Newsweek did. Maybe more, since you’d not only have to do what Newsweek does, you’d have to somehow outspend or outmaneuver Newsweek to get there.

But what does it cost to publish something half as good as Newsweek, say, the Huffington Post? Sure, HuffPo has brought in about $20MM in venture capital, but ignore that sum — that’s how much they can sweet talk out of the world of finance. I’m talking about how much capital it cost to build and operate HuffPo. A tiny, unmeasurable fraction of what it cost to build and run Newsweek.

And how much is Huffington Post worth? A cool $112.

What does this mean?

…he continues…

Cheaper experimentation, cheaper failure, broader participation. Which means more diversity, more discovery, more good stuff that could never surface when the startup costs were so high that no one wanted to take any risks.

The moral: Invest a little, work a lot, and start rocking.

Image courtesy Invisible Hour, via Doctorow’s Craphound blog.