Arianna Huffington, the charismatic and self-invented founder of the Huffington Post, is stepping down as the site’s editor-in-chief to build a new site around the concepts of health and wellness.
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Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) owns the Huffington Post through AOL, which bought the liberal American online news aggregator and blog for $315 million in February 2011.
She also put in a nice plug for her new company, Thrive Global.
“People were mocking blogs and mocking celebrities and she built a formidable media and political force”, said Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at CUNY in NY and well-known media commentator.
“I step down as editor-in-chief filled with gratitude for our incredible HuffPost team and for what we’ve built together, and for [AOL CEO] Tim Armstrong who had the vision to buy HuffPost five years ago and to support from day one our global expansion”, said Huffington in a statement.
Arianna Huffington is resigning as editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, she announced today.
Arinna Huffington’s new project, Thrive Global, is expected to be launched in November.
But Huffington has been very blunt in her distaste for Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president. The contract allayed concerns that she would leave the company after Verizon’s $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL, The Huffington Post’s parent company. “As Thrive Global moved from an idea to a reality, with investors, staff, and offices, it became clear to me that I simply couldn’t do justice to both companies”. She had meant to remain at The Huffington Post but realized that was not possible.
Arianna Huffington, seen arriving at an Oscar awards party in 2013, is leaving the Huffington Post to focus on a new site.
Last month, Verizon announced that it was acquiring Yahoo’s internet business, raising questions about how Yahoo’s news business and The Huffington Post would work together.
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Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, called Huffington “a visionary”, noting the company “is grateful for what she has done in creating such an iconic brand”. In 2014 she published “Thrive” and this year she published “The Sleep Revolution” and has been lecturing on the topics around the country.
