• paidContent, Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:45 PM

It may sound like an unlikely strategy, but Huffington Post says it's turning to the Big Three automakers to boost ad sales. To that end, the left-leaning news aggregator has hired Detroit agency Focus Media & Marketing to lead its direct sales effort aimed at the city's auto manufacturers. "Given the size and importance of the big three domestic carmakers, hiring a designated rep to work with them is a milestone for HuffPost in our continued national sales expansion," said Greg Coleman, in announcing the agreement.

Given that one of the Big Three almost didn't survive last year and auto advertising online overall has tanked with the recession, it sounds a bit risky. Borrell Associates, however, expects total U.S. ad spend for new cars will increase to $19.2 billion this year from the low of $18.4 billion in 2009. The move is part of Colman's aggressive efforts to double HuffPo's revenue over the next year including the use of third-party research for the first time to better target Web users.

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