When people start mapping your startup on to unrelated business models, consider it flattery. Case in point: “A YouTube for audio”, “a YouTube for artists”, “a YouTube for Flash games”.

In the same vein, HuffingtonPost is now radiating the same kind of homage. After the launch of AsianCorrespondent.com and now World Politics Review (which we also received an email about), Lukasz Gadowski  - the co-founder of Spreadshirt, StudiVZ and Brands4Friends, and a partner at Team Europe Ventures - is helping The European, a news and commentary site TechCrunch labels “the European Huffington Post (at least, for Germany)”.

Owned 50/50 by Gadowski and editor Alexander Gorlach, the site has 20 writers. TC: “Articles sit alongside personal contributions from political heavyweights like European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, German car producers association’s president Matthias Wissmann or bishop Margot Käßmann.”

But Gadowski says: “Profit is not my key intention at The European.”

HufPo by no means invented the concept of independently aggregating news opinion, but the admiration it has garnered doing so is inspiring others to have a go as the conventional medium for delivering such content, newspaper, wanes.

There’s a new independent publishing landgrab underway in verticals suddenly considered open for opportunity - but don’t bet against there being a big shake-out over the next couple of years, as the market settles on exactly who will grow to replace the dead trees.