The Huffington Post is expanding its operations by providing local news coverage in several U.S. cities. The popular political blog will launch its first local site in Chicago, founder Arianna Huffington said, and will aggregate news from a variety of local sources.

"We are aspiring to be a newspaper in that we want to be covering all news, not just the political blogging the way we began," said Huffington.

The Huffington Post's move toward local news is a major step forward for the blog as it grows into its new role as a news provider. Thanks to a significant boost in funding over the past two years, the Post has become more than a traditional blog, hiring BBC reporter Elinor Shields as managing editor, and offering new video services.

"[Hiring reporters] has only been good for us," Huffington said. "They have been incredible traffic generators and thanks to our reporters, we have been linked to a lot by the mainstream media."

Source: The Guardian