Betsy Morgan is leaving as general manager of CBSNews.com to lead the HuffPost. Arianna Huffington remains editor in chief and co-founder Kenneth Lerer moves up to chairman of the board. "Getting somebody like this to come to our site says a boatload about where the industry is going," Lerer tells the New York Times.

The Huffington Post has grown steadily since its start in May 2005, now claiming about 3.5 million unique visitors a month. Ms. Morgan acknowledged that CBSNews.com still has many more monthly visitors, about 5.5 million, but said, “I see a bigger opportunity in a different brand from a mainstream brand, a brand that is following a different future path than a mainstream news site is going to pursue.”

Mr. Lerer said the site, which began as a passion project for him and Ms. Huffington and mainly featured commentary from left-of-center political voices, has been trying to position itself as a gathering house for news on a range of subjects beyond politics, including media, entertainment and lifestyles.

Thanks in part to financial backing from Softbank Capital and Greycroft Partners, the site now has more than 40 employees, including a growing number of reporters. One, Thomas Edsall, is a veteran political reporter who previously worked at The Washington Post.

Morgan is 38, holds a Harvard M.B.A. and worked in business development at CBS before taking over the network's website in 2005.

Last month: Marc Cooper joins HuffPost joint venture