HuffPost Without a Huffington? Editor-In-Chief Arianna Steps Down

The Huffington Post, co-founded by Arianna in 2005, won a Pulitzer in less than a decade.

Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post’s editor-in-chief, announced on Thursday that she’s leaving the website to give her full attention to a new health, wellbeing and productivity startup – Thrive Global.

At one point a conservative commentator, Huffington was responsible for extraordinary growth at the liberal online blog and news site that she co-founded in 2005. In less than a decade, The Huffington Post went on to win a Pulitzer for a series of stories about wounded veterans.

She took to Twitter to elaborate on her decision.

I thought HuffPost would be my last act. But I’ve decided to step down as HuffPost’s editor-in-chief to run my new venture, Thrive Global.

— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) August 11, 2016

To everyone at HuffPost: it’s you who make HuffPost what it is. I’m filled with gratitude to all the colleagues and friends I’ve made here.

— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) August 11, 2016

Building something from scratch doesn’t get easier just because you’ve done it before. There is only 1 way to do it: w/ your full attention.

— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) August 11, 2016

Huffington said she couldn’t run The Huffington Post and Thrive Global at the same time.

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 site is known for its celebrity and newsmaker blogs and for cobbling together articles using information from different newspapers and other sources.

Her new venture, Thrive Global, will provide training, seminars and coaching about reducing stress and exhaustion. The company, which is expected to launch in November, shares a name with her well-being book ‘Thrive.’

(With inputs from AP)