My Own Private Huffington Post

Well, not mine, exactly. Arianna Huffington is expanding her reach on The Huffington Post by targeting it even more accutely. The Post took little time establishing itself as a bohemoth in the left blogisphere, and yesterday, it launched a local Chicago section. I was in California fourteen years ago when Arianna's then-husband Michael Huffington challenged Diane Feinstein for her from the right for her Senate seat (one of his earliest commercials sang the praises of Bill Bennett and his Book of Virtues), so I was more than somewhat leary when Arianna started wearing her progressive costume, but I've got to admit that The Huffington Post has stood up reasonably well as a progressive outlet. Now that they're actually coming to town, I suppose I should add them over there in that list of links.

It appears that Chicago is just the first of a series of local sites for them (my big clue to that fact was when I read, "We are rolling out our first local version of The Huffington Post today." Here's the description of the launch:

Today's featured lineup includes Chicago-themed blog posts from John Cusack, blogging from Bangkok about his hometown; Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, responding to a recent damning federal report on conditions at the jail under his command; local boy Jonathan Alter on what makes Chicago "His Kind of Town"; Playboy's Christie Hefner on great summer outings to be found in the city; Esther Cepeda advocating for a Chicago future fueled by nuclear power; and longtime Chicago radio host Edward Lifson, weighing in on what it will take for Chicago to land the 2016 Olympic Games.

That's not a bad launch, and I don't mean to minimize the challenges in setting up such a launch, but keeping the quality up day in and day out presents its own set. We'll keep watching to see how they do (and which city gets its own focus next).