The Huffington Post Los Angeles local news site has gone live, a year after HuffPo's Chicago local site and its NYC site that was launched this summer.

Not many details have been made public prior to this launch, and not much is known about future HuffPo plans. A company representative was quoted by paidContent as "not ready to reveal any forthcoming plans."

This move mirrors the introduction of local editions of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Several other news sites are launching local initiatives as well, such as ESPN and NBC.

The Huffington Post site will be managed by senior editor Willow Bay and Billy Silverman, with a roster of regular HuffPo writers and journalists. Several A-list bloggers will also contribute, such as John Cusack, Larry David and Drew Barrymore.

The staffers describe the LA edition of HuffPo as "our digital town square -- a place for Angelenos to get up-to-the-minute local news, share tips and gripes, and even create some buzz of their own."

The site is currently in beta and is fairly well designed, but I don't like the hospital-gown green they chose on the main page. The column of headlines and pictures down the middle is a little unusual for a news page layout, and at the moment the whole front page seems a bit chaotic and unorganized.

Source: paidContent