A year after the Big Three car makers looked like they could wind up as just the Big Two, auto ad spending has recovered somewhat, and General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are expected to shift more dollars to online. Huffington Post president and chief revenue officer Greg Coleman is sensing an opportunity there and has hired Detroit agency Focus Media (NSDQ: FMCN) & Marketing to lead the site’s direct sales effort targeting the city’s auto manufacturers.  In a statement, Coleman said, “Given the size and importance of the big three domestic carmakers, hiring a designated rep to work with them is a milestone for HuffPost in our continued national sales expansion.”

In terms of charting the spending rebound among car makers, last fall, local media forecaster Borrell Associates predicted that total U.S. ad spend for new cars would rise to $19.2 billion this year from the low of $18.4 billion in 2009. As a small sign of a revival in ad spend, GM, long considered a bellwether when it comes to the direction of ad dollars, inched up its spending 1.3 percent last year, according to recent figures from Kantar Media (fka TNS Media).

To reach his previously stated goal of doubling HuffPo’s revenue over the next year—with a six-fold gain promised in the next three years—Coleman has taken a number of aggressive steps designed to bring in more ad dollars the past few months, including increased use of third-party research— a first for HuffPo—to better target users. He’s also introduced the idea of selling ad placements directly within articles’ comments sections and paid messages among the live Twitter feeds it features on its site. Additionally, Coleman has made a number of additions to the ad sales team.

• Huffington Post Expands Sales Team; Coleman Taps Former AOL, Yahoo Staffers
• Huffington Post Adds Sponsored Tweets; Says Revs Will Double By Next Year