Greek-born Arianna Huffington has announced she will bring her media empire down under after partnering up with Fairfax Media.
News website Huffington Post will launch in Australia by the second quarter of the year, after the company establishes an independent team of editors and journalists in Sydney.
Founder Arianna Huffington says the Australian addition to the website is a ‘milestone’ for her.
“It’s not only a milestone in HuffPost’s global expansion – we are now in 14 countries, on six continents – but a tremendous opportunity to expand our global conversation,” she said in a media release this week.
Ms Huffington successfully launched the Greek chapter of the Huffington Post late last year, calling the new venture the “ultimate homecoming”.
“When we began our international expansion more than three years ago, I knew that one day HuffPost’s own odyssey – to borrow from one of my compatriots – would lead us to Greece,” she said.
Huffington Post’s Australian ‘odyssey’ has taken its time to eventuate. The idea for the Australian website was first announced in 2011, but as other ventures were finalised they took precedence, Ms Huffington told Mumbrella.
“It wasn’t planned to go that way but it did because of all the other launches that got to the top of our calendar,” she said.
Forty-nine per cent of the Australian Huffington Post website will be owned by Fairfax, while 51 per cent will be in Huffington Post’s hands.
The company hopes to break even by the three-year mark and become one of Australia’s most visited news sites in five.
Source: Mumbrella, News.com.au