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Verizon Arianna Huffington Media

Arianna Huffington departs the Huffington Post to buckle down on her health startup Thrive

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

August 11, 2016 | 3 min read

The Huffington Post is to lose its co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington as she looks to build Thrive Global, her newly funded health startup.

Huffington

Arianna Huffington

In June 2015 she signed a deal which would see her stay at the media company until 2019.

Since then, however, Thrive has secured Series A funding and she subsequently announced today (11 August) that she will leave the company to put her energy into Thrive.

“I really thought I could do both, but as we started building it up, I realized that it really needed my full attention," she told the Wall Street Journal.

“It is important to know when one door closes and another opens and I felt that moment had arrived.”

The Huffington Post became part of Verizon’s media network after it was secured in the AOL acquisition.

The 66-year-old founded the media giant with Jonah Peretti, Kenneth Lerer and Andrew Breitbart. The site was a pioneer of digital-only journalism, launching in 2005.

She made a wider announcement on Twitter.

She then introduced Thrive Global.

“Arianna is a visionary who built The Huffington Post into a truly transformative news platform,” said Tim Armstrong, chief executive officer of AOL.

“Today, The Huffington Post is a firmly established and celebrated news source and AOL and Verizon are committed to continuing its growth and the groundbreaking work Arianna pioneered. We are confident that our strong editorial leadership team will maintain the exacting standards and high­quality journalism of our Pulitzer Prize­winning newsroom.

He concluded: “The Huffington Post draws more than 178 million people worldwide on a daily basis and continues to distinguish itself with groundbreaking reporting and analysis. We remain committed to our mission of making The Huffington Post the most influential and innovative news company in the world.”

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