Dive Brief: 

• The Huffington Post is building a big, standalone ad sales force separate from owner AOL. 
• CEO Jimmy Maymann plans to hire 30 new ad sales staff in 2014 to create a native ad selling force of over 50. 
• With the launch of the HuffPost Partner Studio, a division that creates sponsored content for advertisers, the publication expects native advertising to account for about 15% of revenue this year and up to a third of revenue in 2014. 

Dive Insight: 

HuffPo's decision to double down on native and premium advertising will serve as a good model for the industry on how to make native ads work. Maymann expects the publication to be profitable in the coming year, so its strategy so far has worked. The strengthening of the independent team could also point to a separation from AOL further down the road.