6th July, 2011, London - The Huffington Post UK (www.huffingtonpost.co.uk) a UK version of The Huffington Post ("HuffPost"), the popular American news and opinion site, goes live today.

The site features HuffPost's unique combination of original reporting, aggregation, a leading-edge commenting forum, pioneering social engagement tools, and a vibrant platform for a wide range of bloggers. The Huffington Post UK edition will feature content from a host of Irish celebrities who are lined up to blog.

Some well-known Irish figures who will be blogging include Diarmuid Gavin, gardener and television presenter; David McWilliams, Economist and journalist; Conrad Gallagher, celebrity chef; Paul Noonan, singer with Bell X1; Dr Nina Byrnes, GP and medical affairs TV presenter; Elaine Crowley, TV3 ‘Midday Show' presenter; Lisa Cannon, TV3 Xposé presenter; Paul Byrne, Movie critic, Movies.ie; Comedians, Paddy Courtney and Carol Tobin; Mary Kate Geraghty, singer with Fight like Apes; and Peter McGuire, food blogger, Cheapeats.ie.

High profile bloggers already lined up to contribute through the site include Tony Blair, Jeremy Hunt and Sarah Brown as well as comedy and entertainment luminaries such as Ricky Gervais, Tracey Ullman, Imogen Edwards-Jones, Jonathan Meades and Kate Garraway.

The Huffington Post UK is edited by Carla Buzasi (nee Bevan), Editor-in-Chief, AOL Europe who leads an initial team of ten dedicated editors and writers, with further support from the wider AOL editorial team in the UK, as well as The Huffington Post team in the United States. The Huffington Post UK platform gives hundreds of bloggers the opportunity to showcase their work to millions of readers globally.

Other recent new hires include Political Editor Chris Wimpress, a former political correspondent for BBC Radio 4; News Editor Jacqui Head, formerly an Online Journalist at Al-Jazeera, with stints at BBC and CNN; and Caroline Frost, Entertainment Editor, previously an Arts Producer for BBC News, and Online Entertainment Editor at the Herald Sun in Melbourne. Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chief Executive Officer of E.L. Rothschild and board member of Estee Lauder and The Economist Group, is the site's Editor-at-Large.

The Huffington Post (US) was founded in May 2005, and has become an influential and oft-quoted media brand, "The Internet Newspaper." It attracts 36 million* readers and only last month overtook the New York Times to become the world's biggest newspaper online.

The UK site offers coverage of politics, entertainment, living, style, world news, technology, comedy, and is a top destination for news, blogs and original content. In the coming months, The Huffington Post UK will evolve to feature even more content across a whole range of genres.

Commenting on the launch of the UK site, Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief of AOL Huffington Post Media Group, said: "We are arriving here in the midst of a rich and thriving media culture marked by great innovation. We look forward to adding HuffPost UK to the mix, and to our real-time ‘digital water cooler' -- which embraces the best of the new (immediacy, transparency, interactivity) and the best of the old (fact-checking, accuracy, fairness, and an emphasis on storytelling) -- becoming the spark for many interesting conversations."

Kate Burns, SVP, AOL Europe, said: "The Huffington Post has pioneered a new way for people to connect with the news of the day, and with each other, so we're excited to bring this unique platform to the UK. We're giving people the chance to write, share and debate opinions, creating a democratic site that can give Joe Bloggs the same platform as Ricky Gervais."

Based in Dublin, Aengus McClean, Head of AOL Global Operations Limited said: "Much of the Huffington Post UK content will be of interest to Irish readers and the opinions and thoughts of the Irish will be represented with a number of celebrities and well-known bloggers already lined up to blog for the new edition. We will have Irish perspectives on topics ranging from music to food and we'll be delighted to welcome more Irish bloggers as contributors to the Huffington Post UK edition in the coming months."

The Huffington Post (US) already attracts a monthly audience in excess of 1.2 million* UK based readers who are engaged, influential, and affluent. The UK site will feature premium ad formats, including the recently launched "Project Devil", which has generated unprecedented engagement levels, time spent on ads and time spent viewing ad videos. At launch The Huffington Post UK will showcase an LG Project Devil campaign brokered through leading media agency Mindshare and a Dell PLE campaign negotiated by Mediacom.

The Huffington Post (US) is the most linked-to blog on the Internet, according to Technorati.** HuffPost "Social News" launched in 2009 to leverage the power of social networking to allow readers to create their own personalised social networking-like news page on the site. HuffPost has 9,000 bloggers -- from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts -- who contribute on a wide-range of topics making news today.

Among those who have blogged on HuffPost are Barack Obama, Larry David, Madeleine Albright, Robert Redford, Neil Young, Roger Martin, Mia Farrow, Hillary Clinton, Madonna, Jeff Rubin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Alec Baldwin, Mike Nichols, Craig and Marc Kielburger, Al Franken, Aaron Sorkin, Diane Francis, Natalie Portman, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Russell Simmons, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, and more. Recent additions for HuffPost Canada include Sarah Richardson, Elizabeth May and David Suzuki.

* ComScore, May 2011
** Technorati, 25 May 2011

Further information from:

Gibney Communications: + 353 1 6610402