The Huffington Post is on its way to Australia, and the US group will partner with Fairfax Media to set up a local version of its popular news website.

Following in the footsteps of recent arrivals by UK media groups The Guardian and The Daily Mail, HuffPost Australia is expected to launch by the middle of 2015.

The move makes Australia the 14th stop on the Huffington Post’s international expansion, which has already seen websites established in France, the UK, Japan, Germany, Brazil and India.

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“I’m thrilled that HuffPost and Fairfax Media are joining forces to launch HuffPost Australia,” founder Arianna Huffington said in a statement.

“Its not only a milestone in HuffPost’s global expansion – we are now in 14 countries, on six continents – but a tremendous opportunity to expand our global conversation.”

The Huffington Post will own 51 per cent of the joint venture, while Fairfax, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, will own 49 per cent, under a similar model to that used by HuffPost in other markets.

The US company held talks with several local media companies, including News Corp, before deciding to partner with Fairfax, according to Fairfax’s Australian Financial Review.

Chief executive of The Huffington Post, Jimmy Maymann, also told the AFR the venture could break even within three years and be among Australia’s top five news websites within five years.

The Huffington Post is owned by AOL and is one of the most popular news websites in the US, where it had 117 million unique visitors during December.

The joint venture announcement comes after billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart sold her $305 million stake in Fairfax, three years after first buying into the group.

That sale has contributed to a fall in the value of Fairfax shares, down 9.5 cents, or 9.9 per cent, at 86.5 cents at 1235 AEDT.