Huffington Post, Civil Beat partner in Hawaii site

HONOLULU (AP) -- The Huffington Post and subscription-based news website Honolulu Civil Beat announced Wednesday that they plan to partner in a new site dedicated to Hawaii news.

The online outlets said HuffPost Hawaii is expected to launch in the fall, with content from both Civil Beat and the Huffington Post.

Arianna Huffington, president and editor in chief of Huffington Post Media Group, says the site will share stories both about Hawaii as a destination to visit and as a place to live. She says the site will also be a platform for Hawaii residents to share their stories, part of the Huffington Post's mission.

"We want to bring that to Hawaii to encourage a robust conversation," Huffington said in a video posted to the Huffington Post website.

The site will cover everything from beaches to the state's economy, Huffington said.

"It's a little bit like our life, it's a mixture of everything," she said.

Civil Beat was created in 2010 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, who now serves as the site's CEO and publisher. Omidyar says Civil Beat will focus more deeply on public affairs and investigative journalism.

"It lets us focus on what we like to do best and we will be able to bring new forms of content to the Hawaii audience," Omidyar said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Omidyar said in a post on Civil Beat that any partnership has to make financial sense for both parties.

Civil Beat runs on a subscription model, with access costing roughly $20 monthly.

Patti Epler, Civil Beat's editor, said Civil Beat plans to hire several journalists to staff HuffPost Hawaii. Civil Beat would stick to its formula and keep its journalists focused on the subscription site, she said, and take advantage of Huffington Post's distribution.

"We plan to bolster our in-depth enterprise reports as well as our analysis of developing stories," Epler said.

Epler said the partnership is similar to partnerships Huffington Post has with news agencies Asahi Shimbun in Japan and Le Monde in France.

___

Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia