Huffington Post Chicago is now live (but not yet linked from the main Huffington Post). The only paid employee is Ben Goldberger, 25, a former Chicago Sun-Times staffer, who scours local news sites for links. Ad sales will be handled nationally by Huff Post. And contributors submit “featured posts” for free. As we reported a couple months ago, the plan is to launch a local Huff Post in all major markets.
I’ve always liked the idea of Huffington Post-like sites in major regions or markets (in fact, years ago I suggested a Drudge Report for California.) It’s interesting to note that media companies are reluctant to go down the aggregation road largely because linking the competition is so taboo — not to mention it takes precious resources away from original content. But I also like how Huff Post marries free original content — opinionated “featured posts” — to aggregation. Opinion also presents a philosophical hurdle for news organizations. But separately branded, why not?