Decades of lost sleep is not the reason why Arianna Huffington has decided to call time on her Editor in Chief role at the media empire she created, The Huffington Post.
Instead, the sleep advocate and author of Thrive, will focus on a new startup called Thrive Global based on the health and wellbeing space.
Huffington tweeted overnight that it was time to move on.
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
The move comes despite Huffington only recently signing a contract to stay on with the Post ad Editor in Chief and President until 2019. According to the Wall St Journal, the contract allowed her to launch Thrive Global at the same time.
But Huffington’s decided it can’t be done, after securing major funding for the new startup just last week. “I really thought I could do both, but as we started building it up, I realized that it really needed my full attention,” she said. “It is important to know when one door closes and another opens, and I felt that moment had arrived.”
Expected to launch in November, Thrive Global will work with organisations to help them improve the wellbeing of staff. Huffington used her shock exit announcement to tweet a little more about Thrive’s mission
Thrive Global’s mission is to change the way we work & live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is a necessary price for success.
— 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