HuffPost to Name The Root’s Danielle Belton as Editor in Chief (Report)

HuffPost will name Danielle Belton, the current editor in chief of The Root, as its next top editor, the Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for HuffPost declined to comment when reached by TheWrap.

The online news site has been without a top editor since last March, when Lydia Polgreen stepped down as editor in chief to join Gimlet Media. HuffPost was also acquired by BuzzFeed in a deal with Verizon Media that was finalized last month; as part of the acquisition, 47 jobs at HuffPost were cut.

During a meeting with staff at the time, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said that HuffPost’s losses exceeded $20 million last year and the cuts were meant to “fast-track the path to profitability” for the newly acquired media outlet.

*Also Read:* BuzzFeed Cuts 47 HuffPost Jobs After Acquisition

“Though BuzzFeed is a profitable company, we don’t have the resources to support another two years of losses,” Peretti said.

The layoffs were criticized by HuffPost’s union, where 33 members were affected by the cuts.

“We are devastated and infuriated, particularly after an exhausting year of covering a pandemic and working from home,” the union said in a statement shortly after the layoffs were announced. “This is also happening less than a month after HuffPost was acquired by BuzzFeed. We never got a fair shot to prove our worth.”

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