LEAKED: ARIANNA HUFFINGTON’S RESIGNATION LETTER TO AOL

Dear Tim Armstrong,

As you may have read this morning, “Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington said on Thursday she would step down as editor-in-chief of the online news site that bears her name”.

When “The Huffington Post was launched on 9 May, 2005, pulling together liberal-leaning news reports, and as an alternative to conservative news aggregators such as the Drudge Report” I never thought we would accomplish so much. When “AOL …agreed to purchase news blog service The Huffington Post for $315 million” I knew I had succeeded in making a permanent fixture in the publishing world.

However my “continued role at [my] namesake site — which was acquired by AOL Inc. in 2011 for $315 million — ha[s] become unclear after AOL was bought by Verizon Communications Inc. for $4.4 billion last year.”

“[I] said [I] had intended to keep running the site, then decided to turn her attention to her startup, Thrive Global, after attracting investors and hiring staff.” As I said in a statement “When I decided to create Thrive Global, I thought it would be possible to build a startup and continue as editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post. Today, it’s clear that was an illusion.”

“Thrive Global will focus on educational workshops, e-courses and certifications to help companies improve the well-being of their employees, according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC that [I] had sent to [my] staff.”

As I recently tweeted, “I’m filled with gratitude to all the colleagues and friends I’ve made here.”

Sincerely,

Ariana Huffington