Topix is now powering the local news headlines section of the newly redesigned CNN.com, Topix announced this week.

If you click over to the new CNN.com and then scroll down to the Local News ‘widget’ you’ll see that the user is prompted for zip code or city information. In a way to spotlight Topix local news feeds, CNN’s Local section defaults to CNN’s HQ in Ideal, GA.

Local Search & Newspaper Advertising expert Greg Sterling adds that the parent newspaper companies which own Topix have a lot to learn from the CNN partnership.

Despite the fact that Topix is owned by newspapers they have yet to leverage all its capabilities on their own sites. There’s much to learn and borrow from the site, yet no newspaper site is really doing that fully more than two years after the Topix acquisition.