Arianna Huffington Is Leaving The Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington is leaving The Huffington Post, a site she co-founded 11 years ago. Her new venture will take her right back to where it all started. 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 Huffington says Thrive Global's mission is "to change the way we work and live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is a necessary price for success." Huffington received funding for Thrive from a familiar source, Lerer Hippeau Ventures. Ken Lerer was a HuffPost cofounder, and Eric Hippeau was HuffPost's CEO at the time of AOL's 2011 acquisition of the site. "I love the fact that Thrive Global will be headquartered in the same offices where HuffPost was born in SoHo," Huffington said. Another co-founder was Jonah Peretti, who would go on to create BuzzFeed. When it launched in 2005, Huffington Post was filled mostly with user generated content and aggregated news stories, with some original content. By 2012, it had been honored with a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Today, the site draws more than 178 million users per day with editions in more than 10 languages. "Arianna is a visionary who built The Huffington Post into a truly transformative news platform," said CEO Tim Armstrong in a statement. "AOL and Verizon are committed to continuing its growth and the groundbreaking work Arianna pioneered." Huffington, 66, said now was the time to step aside, as funding for Thrive arrived. She will depart in August, ahead of the close of Verizon's $4.83 billion acquisition of Yahoo, which will dramatically increase the original news, politics, sports and finance content in the AOL empire. Named Adweek's 2015 Brand Genius Brand Visionary, Huffington was a familiar face on TV as a political commentator before she launched her eponymous site. "The journey of the last 11 years has exceeded my wildest expectations," Huffington said. "I'm proud of all we've accomplished and very confident about HuffPost's future with the strongest leadership team we've ever had and the full support of AOL and Verizon. And of course, HuffPost will always be part of me, and I'll always be here to help in every way possible as it continues to reach new heights."