When the Montreal Gazette reported that Huffington Post Quebec had lost nine high-profile contributors over the issue of pay, the news spread on Twitter and Facebook almost immediately.

From the exclusive report:

“Amir Khadir, Steven Guilbault, Normand Baillargeon, Françoise David, Évelyne de la Chenelière, Jean Barbe, Philippe Couillard, Bernard Drainville and Pierre Curzi won’t blog for the new online news site. Two others – Vision Montréal leader Louise Harel and feminist Djemila Benhabib, author of 'Ma vie à contre-Coran' – are sitting on the fence and may also be absent when the French-language, American-owned site goes online here on Feb. 8.”

For Tamy Emma Pepin, Huffington Post Quebec’s blogs editor, the Gazette’s headline of “Huffington Post Quebec loses high-profile bloggers” is a misnomer.

“I don’t see this as a loss,” she told OpenFile Montreal over the phone. “In none of the launches has the Huffington Post ever released names of bloggers until launch dates. As soon as it was announced that the Huffington Post Quebec would be launched, people started releasing names without our approval. These were names that were not even confirmed from our side... We did a big outreach to a lot of different people to have a wide variety of voices and some people said yes and some people told us they didn’t have time.”

Pepin said that the Huffington Post is clear about their policy when it comes to blog contributors.

“It’s very clear from the get-go that the bloggers are not paid. It’s not a secret,” she said. “The policy of the Huffington Post is that anybody can blog. It’s open to anybody: People write about whatever they want, whenever they want.”

The Huffington Post Quebec is set to launch on Feb. 8.