Executive editor Liz Heron is leaving the Huffington Post, she announced on Facebook, and will start “consulting with the Knight Foundation on digital media initiatives.”
“For the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the smartest, fiercest and most creative people in media at The Huffington Post, Heron wrote in the Facebook post. “Now it’s time for me to explore what’s next.”
She continued: “I’m so proud of what we accomplished together, from becoming truly world-class at audience development and reviving our focus on marrying storytelling with data; to building a new video voice and business focused on participation and immersion (to the tune of over a billion distributed video views a month). We pioneered new ways of inviting our audience to not only care about seemingly intractable issues like global waste, but to contribute to solutions.”
Heron previously directed social media for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She was considered a likely successor to Arianna Huffington as editor in chief, but the company is still searching to fill that position. Huffington left the company she started earlier this year to start a health and wellness startup.
Heron’s Facebook message concluded: “I’ll be rooting for the great people at HuffPost as they start a new chapter. As for me, I am starting by consulting with the Knight Foundation on digital media initiatives, and will let you know my next adventure soon.”