The popular online news site has now arrived in Canada, and its front page includes Canadian stories readers normally wouldn’t find on the front page of the American Huffington Post. Some stories are taken as RSS feeds from mainstream sites, some are full copies of CBC stories (as per a partnership with the Crown corporation) and others are written by HuffPost staffers.
Also, many prominent Canadians are writing columns for HuffPost Canada, including David Suzuki, Green Party leader Elizabeth May and legal expert Stephen LeDrew.
Arianna Huffington explains more about the new site in a welcome letter: “Canadian politics and business will be at the forefront of our coverage, which will make the site a go-to place both for Canadians and for Americans looking to get some insight into their neighbors to the north.” She also points out how her group poached many writers and editors from The Globe & Mail, including Kenny Yum, Rashida Jeeva and Brodie Fenlon.
Launching international editions of Huffington Post has always been a goal for the new company since it merged with AOL, Huffington points out. There have been reports of a UK edition coming this summer.
According to many comments on Huffington’s article, some Canadians don’t welcome the Canada-branded site. The main complaint? Canadians automatically being sent to HuffingtonPost.ca and not having any way to switch to HuffingtonPost.com. There isn’t a link on the Canadian site to redirect users to the original American site, although it’s being reported by the Globe’s Matt Hartley the fix should happen soon. He also reports local sites, such as HuffPost Toronto, may also soon launch.
In other HuffPost news today, the site and its co-founders are being sued by two political consultants who say Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer stole the concept of the liberal news site, Digital Journal reported.
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