Memo Pad: HuffPo Poaches Times Journalist... Mark Lotto Leaves, Too...

TAKE THAT: A few weeks ago New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote a column that lashed out at Arianna Huffington, calling her the “queen of aggregation.” “I can’t decide whether serious journalism is the kind of thing that lures an audience to a site like The Huffington Post, or if that’s like hiring a top chef to fancy up the menu at Hooters,” said Keller, adding a little more fire power regarding AOL’s purchase of the site. “Buying an aggregator and calling it a content play is a little like a company’s announcing plans to improve its cash position by hiring a counterfeiter.”

Huffington struck back on Monday by poaching yet another Times journalist, the third in six months to leave the Gray Lady for the glories of the Internet after Tim O’Brien and Peter Goodman jumped ship to HuffPo. WWD learned that T: The New York Times Style Magazine’s travel editor Maura Egan will become the Web site’s deputy entertainment and culture editor. “It makes it easier to move, jumping into the pool after my colleagues have already done it,” Egan said. “It’s really almost heartbreaking to leave, but this was an opportunity that I couldn’t refuse.”

She joins John Montorio, who was recently named culture and entertainment editor for the Huffington Post Media Group. He started on Friday after having been a managing editor at the Los Angeles Times. “A lot of people keep asking me about my grand plan here, but to be honest, it’s too early to say,” Montorio said.

Huffington said Egan exemplifies the best of “the old and the new. She has a great sensibility and now has access to a new range of tools,” Huffington noted. “She now has access to real-time speed, social media and, of course, video. And she’ll be great on video.”

— AMY WICKS