Apparently that new Op-Ed section the New York Times launched back in June is working, because the paper just announced that it’s expanding its Opinion section on the website as well. According to a company press release, the new content will be rolling out over the next few weeks, and will include:

• Web-only op-eds
• A blog from Andrew Rosenthal that examines what people are saying about the Times’ opinions
• Short videos commenting on current events
• A political opinion blog featuring content from Timothy Egan, Charles Blow, Ross Douthat and Thomas Edsall

We’re particularly interested in Ronsenthal’s blog (opinions about opinions!) but the other features seem worth checking out as well. No doubt we’ll be hearing more about this as the features are launched, so we’ll keep you posted.

EXCLUSIVE

A key hire at Arianna‘s Huffington Post will be announced later today: Journalist and political veteran Frank Wilkinson will join HuffPo as blog editor. Wilkinson will be charged with integrating its bloggy news format to expand into new verticals (politics, media, business, entertainment and something called “Living Now”) as well as ramp up original political reporting alongside political editor Thomas Edsall.

Wilkinson is a former senior editor and national affairs correspondent for Rolling Stone, where he won an Ellie in the “Public Interest” category, and was an original staff writer at the New York Observer.

HuffPo is clearly gearing up for 2008. The site already announced a “crowdsourcing” partnership with Jay Rosen‘s newassignment.net — deploying hundreds of “citizen journalists” to report and blog on the races. And HuffPo will host the first ever online presidential debate later this year.