The Huffington Post has launched its third local site in Denver, Colorado, following the introduction of those in Chicago and New York earlier this year. As well as featuring local bloggers, the site will include content from partner publications.

The site's editor Ethan Axelrod has explained why Denver was chosen as the third city for a local HuffPost, acknowledging that "the Mile High City doesn't necessarily seem like a natural market to follow Chicago and New York." However, he asserted, Denver has "become a destination for young professionals and businesses" which has turned Colorado into "one of the most politically important states in the country."

And Axelrod says that on his quest to find bloggers, he has discovered that the state has "some of the most interesting and innovative voices in the country." He describes the mix that he has assembled as "diverse" and capable of providing "unique insight into life in this state." Contributors include Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, author and historian Dr. Patricia Limerick and former Senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart, according to MediaBistro.

Axelrod and senior editor Katharine Zaleski travelled around Colorado meeting with news outlets to discuss feeding content directly into HuffPost, Zaleski wrote. The HuffPost team have also set up deals to share HuffPost's citizen journalism tools with local news sites and reporters, such as The Watch in Ouray and Telluride and State Bill Colorado in Denver.

With this new Denver site and another expected to launch in Los Angeles, Arianna Huffington's project continues to evolve from its origins as a political news aggregator. It also plans to introduce sections on books, technology and sports in the near future: September 21 for technology and October 5 for books, the New York Observer reported. The site recently announced its partnership with Facebook to create Social News, which tracks the content users view on the site and lets users know what stories their friends have read and commented on.

Source: Huffington Post (1), (2), MediaBistro, New York Observer