Today marks the beginning of a new vertical on The Huffington Post: HuffPost Detroit. HuffPost Detroit will be providing the city with The Huffington Post's unique combination of real-time news and opinion, and a passionate and engaged community powered by the latest social media tools.

Launching HuffPost Detroit is a continuation of HPMG's overall local strategy. The Huffington Post Local readers average 380K interactions each month through sharing, tweeting, commenting and liking and we've just gotten started in San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, D.C. and New York*. HuffPost Detroit is a continuation of this.

HuffPost Detroit applies The Huffington Post's style –from story selection, images and headlines – to Detroit's news of the day. Seasoned editor Simone Landon (WDET, Metro Times, WNRI – the NPR affiliate in Providence, HuffPost in New York) will be leading the charge engaging Detroit residents with local coverage on what's going on in their city. HuffPost Detroit offers the comprehensiveness of local newspapers with the immediacy and smart 'intel' of local blogs. HuffPost Detroit features a roundup of city news as well as a fast-paced guide to the latest on restaurants, real estate, autos, neighborhoods, green living and cultural happenings. The destination is broad in scope and has a point of view, with everything from the latest downtown development plans to the cheapest Middle Eastern food.

I'm personally proud to see this new phase of local happening on HPMG. We've been providing directions and mapping services to you for over 15 years now, and in the last year have invested heavily in over 860 neighborhoods and towns to provide you with local news. Now, with HuffPost Local, we have localized city blogs bringing the experts to communities across the country, and giving readers a chance to interact with our local content.

*Source: AOL Internal Data October 2011