WASHINGTON — It was billed as a cutting edge online news platform and in many ways it delivered and thrived. Now the namesake, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post has decided to move on.
Arianna Huffington, 66, says in a tweet that she will step down from the media company she helped to foster since its launch in 2005 to start Thrive Global, a new online health and wellness startup.
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
Co-founded by the late Andrew Breitbart (of the conservative Breitbart.com), Jonah Peretti (founder of Buzzfeed) and Kenneth Lerer (founder of Thrillist,) The Huffington Post has become a platform for mostly liberal politics, lifestyle, entertainment, business and media and technology news, with various international editions, original reporting, and celebrity contributors. It was purchased by AOL in 2011 for $315 million and is currently owned by Verizon Communications.
Huffington, a Greek-American businesswoman who ran unsuccessfully for California governor in 2003, was a public supporter of the so-called Republican Revolution in the 1990s, when she was married to California Republican Rep. Michael Huffington. They divorced in 1997. She has been an advocate for Democratic causes ever since, and this year was listed No. 70 on the Forbes Most Powerful Women in the World list.
