Fairfax will challenge UK online news publishers Guardian Australia and the Daily Mail with a local partnership to publish the Huffington Post.

Fairfax Media will hold a 49 per cent of the Huffington Post Australia business, which will have a Sydney-based newsroom and its own team of writers.

Chief executive Greg Hywood says it will be part of an expanding portfolio of digital assets: "We look forward to working closely with The Huffington Post to build the brand and bring its digital media innovation to Australia."

Content from global stories and trends will be combined with "hyperlocal" content and will include a version of the popular good news page. Huffington Post chief executive Jimmy Maymann says Australia's digitally savvy population made it an appealing destination: "It is a rare combination of both a digitally advanced economy and a relatively young digital media market," he says.

The site will appear in the second quarter of 2015 and is expected to be among the top five sites in the Nielsen online ratings in three to five years.