Huffington Post UK to launch on 6 July before going global
Arianna Huffington today confirmed that her eponymous US news website will launch in the UK on 6 July, as part of ambitious plans to be in a dozen countries by the end of the year.
Speaking in Cannes this morning, the Huffington Post founder said the UK site would take the same format of the US version, which mixes original news reporting with legions of blogs.
"We're launching in the UK on July 6," Huffington said.
"It is going to take the template of the Huffington Post which is a combination of curation, regional reporting, blogging and commentary. That is the platform we are going to take internationally."
The multi-millionaire publisher, who sold the Huffington Post to AOL for £195m in February, said a raft of further international editions would follow after the UK launch.
"We are planning to launch in France after England," Huffington said. "Then we are going to announce the roll-out of other countries; Latin America, Australia, India.
"We have to be in 12 countries by the end of the year. We've already launched in Canada which has been a great success."
Also present at this morning's breakfast briefing was AOL chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, who promised that the internet portal would make bolder moves in future and have a more editorially-driven approach.
Armstrong said: "What Amazon is to commerce, and what Google is to search, AOL has to be to content.
"We're going to keep investing in taking risks and changes, we're not going to make incrimental moves. Going forward we think there is a big opportunity here."
Earlier today AOL unveiled its new-look UK website, as part of renewed efforts to crack Britain and Europe.