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While New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC are natural choices for city-specific verticals, the Huffington Post has chosen Detroit as their newest locale to be granted a channel. (Albeit, the others are already covered.)
Detroit is nearly symbolic of some of America’s biggest problems, with urban blight, unemployment and export of jobs plaguing the Motor City for decades even ahead of the current slump in the US. But the city has fervent supporters, vibrant culture and a constant push for revitalization among its many fans- which makes it a good choice for a sub-site on HuffPo.
The megablog announced the new Detroit channel in a post, and Huffington herself explains why the site chose the city for inclusion:
“We’ve seen it time and time again: a reporter helicopters in and scours the city for tales of grit and decay that reinforce the Detroit of popular imagination — or the occasional oases of progress that defy it — and then, just as quickly, heads out of town, conventional wisdom re-confirmed. Indeed, the passing, drive-by glance at Detroit has become a mainstream media subgenre. Not much has changed since 2009, when HuffPost’s Jason Linkins called Detroit the “epicenter for a nation of journalists-turned-poverty-tourists.”
Huffington continues:
“HuffPost Detroit will cover both sides of the city’s split-screen — for Detroit, beyond the oversimplified myth of its past, and beyond the unimaginative visions of its future, is in fact a city of incredible contrasts.”
She explains that an “influx of young people” as well as entrepreneurs also sparked interest in covering the city.
