Huffington Post Chicago Launches in Beta

The Huffington Post has launched a beta of its first local “Internet newspaper” in Chicago, with promises to produce 10 to 20 more local efforts in the next couple of years.

The Chicago site is a mishmash of local news, mostly from local publications like Chicago Business and the Chicago Sun-Times; national headlines; local blogs and prominently featured local site partners, including Thrillist. It is a fun and interesting package, like The Huffington Post itself, and maybe provides a better glance at news and lifestyles than a metro paper like the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye provides. The site is put together by a local journalist who used to work at the Sun-Times, and all ads are sold out of New York.

Chicago Tribune columnist Philip Rosenthal quotes Arianna Huffington as observing that “people who are from Chicago have all these amazing warm feelings and memories of Chicago.” One of the first posts on the site was a sentimental tribute to the city from poet Carl Sandberg, I mean movie actor John Cusack, a Chicago native.

(Thanks to Lost Remote for steering me to this one.)