Huffington Post Media Group posts

We're thrilled to share with you the news that The Huffington Post has just become Canada's largest national news site, with a record 3.9 million monthly unique visitors in Canada, compared to key national news competitors, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and National Post*.

In reference to the recent release of the September data from comScore Inc. we could not be more excited with the great news!

Since the site launched in May 2011, Canadian unique visitors to The Huffington Post have grown by 150% and the average visitor spends more than 17 minutes on our sites**.

In Canada, there are 3 regional editions of The Huffington Post, including Le Huffington Post Québec, The Huffington Post Alberta and The Huffington Post British Columbia. We have launched 12 Canadian specific sections, including HuffPost Canada Style, Living, Music, Impact, Art de Vivre, Travel and more! In addition to our traffic growth, we have seen our social community flourish with over 1,400 bloggers, in excess of 2 million social actions per month, over 20,000 weekly comments and have a social following of more than 65,000 fans on Facebook and more than 46,000 Twitter followers – now that is breaking news!

Our blend of unique Canadian programming, original reporting, photo and video galleries on people's favorite topics and stories and our signature mix of blogs and a strong DNA for social news and sharing have quickly propelled us to a leadership position in the Canadian marketplace.

*comScore Inc., Total Canada, Home and Work. Sept 2012. [E] Huffington Post Global compared to [P] The Globe And Mail, [M] Toronto Star, [S] and National Post Sites.
** comScore Inc., Total Canada, Home and Work. June 2011 vs. Sept 2012. [E] Huffington Post Global.

Today marks The Huffington Post UK launch of a new digital marketing campaign to showcase the huge variety of opinions and voices across the site and its blogs.

The brand new content-led campaign, created with Gravity Road, will feature opinions and views on a range of topics from some well-known faces. Celebrity bloggers and opinion-formers leading the charge include Alice Cooper, Cherie Blair, Rugby player Will Carling and TV presenter Cherry Healey, with many more lined up to take part over the coming months. The ads will also promote original content from the HuffPost's in-house editorial team and will run across a wide selection of digital media outlets and formats until the end of the year.

Kickstarting the rolling campaign in style, the first set of creative features close-up photography and video of each blogger, with provocative quotes from their blog intimately scrawled across their face. It also sees the UK launch of HuffPost's global strapline "Conversations Start Here". Alice Cooper will be lending his writing skills to the topic of Reality TV, Cherry Healey will be blogging on the pill industry and Cherie Blair will focus on female entrepreneurship. Other blog topics being supported in September include religion & politics, the beauty industry, comedy, sport and celebrity culture.

Watch the video here:

AOL Canada and The Huffington Post Media Group announced yesterday the launch of two new editions of The Huffington Post Canada, Huffington Post Alberta and the Huffington Post British Columbia. Both sites will provide a powerful new online platform from The Huffington Post Canada that will deliver local stories and embody the unique culture of Alberta and B.C. respectively.

The sites will deepen the conversations around the stories that matter most to communities in each Province, including politics, business, opinion, energy, lifestyle, affordable housing and news. In the spirit of the mission of the national edition, The Huffington Post Canada, the sites will inform, inspire and connect readers to a platform that allows them to be involved in their online communitiesand encourages visitors to participate in the conversations and stories that interest them most.

The Huffington Post Canada's first regional expansion, Le Huffington Post Québec launched in February 2012; regional expansion into the Western Provinces of Canada includes The Huffington Post British Columbia ("HuffPost B.C.") also launching today. The Huffington Post reaches 3.4 million online Canadians per month and has grown 117%* since launch. Le Huffington Post Québec has seen a similar growth trajectory at 156% since launch. HuffPost Alberta will bring a more local flavour to the already 535,000 monthly unique visitors to Huffington Post sites that reside in the Prairies.

Regional based editorial teams will be a key ingredient to the success of HuffPost Alberta and HuffPost B.C. The Alberta site will be managed by Pablo Fernandez, news editor, formerly of the Calgary Sun with support from Michelle Butterfield, associate news editor, formerly of the Calgary Herald, reporting to Kenny Yum, managing editor of The Huffington Post Canada. The site will feature stories from Huffington Post editors, bloggers, and will feature contributions from high profile members of the surrounding communities.

HuffPost B.C. will be managed by news editor Andree Lau, formerly of the CBC, and associate news editor Jesse Ferreras, formerly of Canada.com, also reporting to managing editor Kenny Yum. The site will feature contributions from Huffington Post editors, bloggers, andinfluential British Columbians including author Robin Rowland, radio broadcaster and filmmaker Tetsuro Shigematsu, and singer Sarah McLachlan.

The Huffington Post Canada has an ever-growing social following, boasting more than 50,000 Facebook fans, more than 36,000 Twitter followers and more than 14,000 comments per week.

*Source: comScore, Inc., Total Canada, Home & Work, June 2012. The Huffington Post data from [E] Huffington Post Global, *% growth in UVs vs. June 2011.

The Huffington Post Media Group launched HuffPost Live, the site's live streaming network, and starting today, anyone with a smart phone, a tablet, or a webcam can instantly join the conversation happening on HuffPost Live.

On HuffPost Live, users' voices can be heard on the issues that matter most to them, right along with the network's other guests, including newsmakers, celebrities, pundits and experts. HuffPost Live operates out of studios in New York and Los Angeles, with a satellite studio operating out of HuffPost's Washington, D.C. bureau. HuffPost Live will live-stream 12 hours of programming, five days a week, with highlights shown overnight and on the weekends.

At launch, HuffPost Live's host/producers include Marc Lamont Hill, Abby Huntsman, Alicia Menendez, Alyona Minkovski, Nancy Redd, Mike Sacks, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Jacob Soboroff, Janet Varney and Josh Zepps.

This innovative new launch is supported by our founding partners at Cadillac and Verizon. Throughout 2012, both these partners will enjoy the opportunity to be directly integrated into the live programming as well as the in the surrounding media across platforms, and syndicated across AOL brands.

Follow HuffPost Live on Facebook (Facebook.com/HuffPostLive) and on Twitter @HuffPostLive. Watch HuffPost Live now at live.huffingtonpost.com.