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.
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And shortly after, Huffington had won a Pulitzer Prize, was named in Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and Forbes listed her among the most powerful women. “But I’ve chose to step down as HuffPost’s editor-in-chief to run my new venture, Thrive Global”, she wrote on her Twitter account.
In June, Huffington announced she was working on a new start-up but said her “primary focus” would remain her namesake site.
Mr Huffinton added: “As Thrive Global moved from an idea to reality, with investors, staff and offices, it became clear to me that I simply couldn’t do justice to both companies”.
In her books Thrive and The Sleep Revolution, Huffington stresses the importance of striking the right work-life balance by prioritising health and well-being.
The Huffington Post is going to be without a Huffington.
Ms Huffington made the announcement about her imminent departure on Twitter, where she has more than 2.3 million followers.
Aside from its US edition, The Huffington Post has 14 global editions in multiple languages.
In the midst of her success and race for global domination, Huffington received a wake-up call.
When she finally obtained Series A funding for her new business late last week, she stated that it had become obvious that she couldn’t continue to oversee the Huffington Post.
But her outside interests have also raised questions about her commitment to her publication and whether she was using it to promote her interests.
Last year, Huffington told NPR that the media chooses to “focus mostly on bad news – crazies, rapes, mayhem”.
More precisely, the hierarchy is this: The Huffington Post was sold to AOL five years ago, and then Verizon bought AOL last year. It is now owned by Verizon Communications Inc.
The company, based in New York’s Soho neighborhood (and, notably, in the same building where The Huffington Post first launched) is set to launch formally in November, but has already begun piloting programs and workshops with the global firm Accenture.
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HuffPost CEO Jared Grust assure the staff on Thursday that the company is stable although the AOL purchase remains undefined. He announced that it had been approved a hiring plan not only to fulfill Arianna Huffington position but also to search for new editors due to the recent departures., says The Huffington Post.
