For the past 11 years, The Huffington Post has been at the center of my life, and frankly I thought it would be my last act.
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Arianna Huffington, the cofounder and Editor-in-Chief at the Huffington Post, is today stepping down from her role at the HuffPost to focus on a new startup called Thrive Global.
Read Huffington’s early-morning tweets about her move below. “Arianna is a visionary who built The Huffington Post into a truly transformative news platform”, he said, adding AOL is “grateful for what she has done in creating such an iconic brand”.
The Huffington Post is now owned by Verizon Communications Inc., and her departure comes several weeks after Verizon said it was buying the media properties of Yahoo Inc. for about $4.8 billion.
The Huffington Post, which has yet to turn a profit for AOL, has more than 100 million unique visitors per month. Huffington occasionally clashed with AOL management, including CEO Tim Armstrong, and there have been repeated stories over the years about a possible spinoff of the website. “AOL and Verizon are committed to continuing its growth and the groundbreaking work Arianna pioneered”.
It was not immediately clear who will take over upon Huffington’s departure from the company. Late previous year, approximately 350 editorial staffers at the site voted to unionize. Ms. Huffington said she recused herself from coverage of Uber.
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Thrive Global, a health and wellness startup, will offer “educational workshops, e-courses and certifications to help companies improve the well-being of their employees”, according to an internal Huffington Post memo reported in June by CNBC. The company’s Series A funding round was led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Mr. Lerer’s fund. Other investors include Blue Pool Capital, Greycroft Partners, Advancit Capital and entrepreneur Sean Parker. We know that our exceptional team will continue to deliver the powerful reporting, writing and analysis that draw more than 178M people worldwide to visit The Huffington Post on a daily basis.
