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 Getty BuzzFeed pulls out of $1.3M advertising deal with RNC over Donald Trump 
 
 BuzzFeed has pulled out of an advertising agreement with the Republican National Committee over objections to Donald Trump's rhetoric. 
 
 The buy was for $1.3 million, a source close to BuzzFeed told POLITICO. The source said that the main consideration was the site’s employees – that BuzzFeed could not countenance “having employees make ads, or working at the company and having our site promoting things, that limit our freedom and make it harder for them to live their lives.” 
 
 Asked if the site would rule out any Trump advertising, the source said the specifics would matter: “In general, we have taken the position that we won’t take ads for his presidential campaign.” 
 
 In an email to staff on Monday, BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti explained that in April, the RNC and BuzzFeed signed an agreement to "spend a significant amount on political advertisements slated to run during the Fall election cycle." But since Trump became the nominee his campaign has proven themselves to be "directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States," because of proposed bans on Muslim immigration and comments about descendants of immigrants, among other policies. 
 
 "We don't need to and do not expect to agree with the positions or values of all our advertisers. And as you know, there is a wall between our business and editorial operations. This decision to cancel this ad buy will have no influence on our continuing coverage of the campaign," Peretti said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. 
 
 "We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company," Peretti wrote. "However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason." 
 
 In a follow up email, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said the decision was from the business side and would not affect coverage of the Trump campaign. "This was Jonah’s call, and the prerogative of a publisher,” Smith wrote. 
 
 RNC chief strategist and spokesman Sean Spicer said in a statement to CNN that the RNC "never intended" to use the ad space reserved with BuzzFeed. 
 
 "Space was reserved on many platforms, but we never intended to use BuzzFeed," Spicer said. "It is ironic that they have not ruled out taking money from a candidate currently under investigation by the FBI." 
 
 BuzzFeed has had an at times contentious relationship with the Trump campaign, with their reporters being denied credentials or general entry to Trump rallies and being directly targeted by the campaign and Trump himself. Reporters at the site told POLITICO that the decision likely won't change their relationships with the campaign, which they described as already strained. 
 
 It's also far from the first time the site has taken a position on a topic. In early 2012, BuzzFeed blacked out parts of their site in solidarity with the protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act. Following the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 which legalized same sex marriage, the site changed its logo to the rainbow flag colors, which are a symbol of the gay pride movement. Smith said at the time: "We firmly believe that for a number of issues, including civil rights, women’s rights, anti-racism, and LGBT equality, there are not two sides." 
 
 Other websites have taken stands against Trump as well. The Huffington Post adds a note to each of its politics articles about the Republican nominee, calling him "serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther." 
 
 A spokesperson for The Huffington Post told POLITICO "We've made our stance on Trump clear from the very beginning and will not be running any Trump for President ads," when asked if the site would follow Buzzfeed's decision. 
 
 A spokesperson for BuzzFeed declined to comment on the size of the ad buy or on any further details about the ad buy. 
 
 We've reached out to the Trump campaign further comment, and will update here accordingly. 
 
 Read the full memo below: 
 
 "Hello BuzzFeeders, 
 
 I wanted to share with you a business decision we have made regarding the Trump for President campaign and why we made it. 
 
 In April, the Republican National Committee signed an agreement with BuzzFeed to spend a significant amount on political advertisements slated to run during the Fall election cycle. As you know, we accept advertisements from both republican and democratic candidates and we were pleased to accept this advertising order from the RNC. 
 
 Since signing this advertising deal, Donald Trump, as you know, has become the presumptive nominee of his party. The tone and substance of his campaign are unique in the history of modern US politics. Trump advocates banning Muslims from traveling to the United States, he's threatened to limit the free press, and made offensive statements toward women, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and foreign nationals. 
 
 Earlier today Buzzfeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them. The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs. 
 
 We don't need to and do not expect to agree with the positions or values of all our advertisers. And as you know, there is a wall between our business and editorial operations. This decision to cancel this ad buy will have no influence on our continuing coverage of the campaign. 
 
 We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason. 
 
 Thanks, 
 
 Jonah " 
 
 Additional reporting by Kelsey Sutton 
 
 
 
 Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico. 
 
 Mike Allen is chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. ||||| BuzzFeed has terminated a deal with the Republican National Committee to run political advertisements in the fall, the company's CEO, Jonah Peretti, informed employees Monday morning. 
 
 In an email, Peretti cited Donald Trump's rhetoric and campaign promises as the reason for the decision to terminate the buy, worth $1.3 million according to a source who spoke with Politico. 
 
 "Earlier today, BuzzFeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them," Peretti said. "The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs." 
 
 
 
 Peretti added later in the email, "We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason." 
 
 A spokesman for the RNC did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed, but RNC senior strategist Sean Spicer told CNN that the RNC never intended to use BuzzFeed as a platform. 
 
 "Space was reserved on many platforms, but we never intended to use BuzzFeed," Spicer said, adding, "It is ironic that they have not ruled out taking money from a candidate currently under investigation by the FBI." 
 
 In a follow-up email, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith reiterated that the decision was not an editorial call and that coverage of the Trump campaign by BuzzFeed News journalists would go unchanged. "This was Jonah's call, and the prerogative of a publisher," Smith wrote. 
 
 Here's Peretti's full email: ||||| Arianna Huffington, who co-founded the Huffington Post 11 years ago and built it into one of the largest digital media outlets in the U.S., says she will be leaving the company in the coming weeks to focus on a soon-to-launch startup dedicated to health and wellness. 
 
 Ms. Huffington, who is 66 years old, had signed a new deal in June 2015 to remain at the Huffington Post as president and editor in chief through 2019. But she said the contract allowed her to launch the new company, Thrive Global, while continuing in her role at the site. 
 
 When she secured Series A funding for the new venture late last week, she said it had become clear she could no longer continue running Huffington Post. “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 in an interview. “It is important to know when one door closes and another opens, and I felt that moment had arrived.” 
 
 Ms. Huffington’s continued role at her namesake site—which was acquired by AOL Inc. in 2011 for $315 million—had become unclear after AOL was bought by Verizon Communications Inc. for $4.4 billion last year. The matter appeared put to rest when she signed the new contract, but her future with the site came into question again when she announced two months ago that she would be launching a new venture. 
 
 Ms. Huffington has published a number of books focusing on health and sleep issues, including “Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder,” and “The Sleep Revolution.” She had spent an increasing amount of time this year dedicated to giving lectures on the subjects and less time running the site. 
 
 Ms. Huffington, a Greek native, rose to U.S. prominence in the 1990s as a conservative political commentator. Her then-husband, Michael Huffington, a billionaire Republican oil heir, ran for the U.S. Senate in California in 1994 but narrowly lost to Dianne Feinstein. After they divorced, Ms. Huffington became more liberal and in 2005 co-founded the Huffington Post along with Kenneth Lerer and Jonah Peretti. 
 
 Kenneth Lerer and Arianna Huffington at a Huffington Post event in 2010. Photo: Getty Images 
 
 The site helped pioneer digital-only journalism and its success would serve as a template for many digital startups that followed in its wake. 
 
 Mr. Peretti later founded BuzzFeed with the backing of Mr. Lerer who has become a top venture capitalist for many digital-media companies and is investing in Ms. Huffington’s new venture. 
 
 “When we started, there was no Facebook , there was no video, no social. It was tech 101, but Arianna saw the possibilities,” said Mr. Lerer. “Without her marketing genius, her editing and her contacts, none of this would have happened.” 
 
 When the Huffington Post was sold to AOL five years ago, Ms. Huffington was named president and editor in chief of Huffington Post Media Group, which took on other AOL media properties such as Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone and MapQuest. 
 
 The management structure, however, created tension, and by mid-2012, her portfolio was scaled back to only the Huffington Post. 
 
 In recent years, Huffington Post has undergone an aggressive global expansion, launching localized versions of the site in 14 countries, such as Greece, the U.K., France and Mexico. 
 
 The Huffington Post was founded as a liberal alternative to the Drudge Report and quickly rose in prominence as a blogging platform and news aggregator. Ms. Huffington often leveraged her personal relationships to get celebrities and political figures to write columns for the site. 
 
 “Arianna is a visionary who built The Huffington Post into a truly transformative news platform,” Tim Armstrong, chief executive officer of AOL, said in a statement. “AOL and Verizon are committed to continuing its growth and the groundbreaking work Arianna pioneered.” 
 
 Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, is leaving the digital media outlet to focus on her new startup Thrive Global. Photo: Getty Images for AOL 
 
 Ms. Huffington’s time running the company wasn’t without controversy. 
 
 Huffington Post’s practice of not paying many of its contributors—arguing that they were benefiting from exposure to the site’s large number of visitors—brought criticism. In 2011, the National Writers Union and the News Guild called for a boycott of the site. 
 
 Despite regularly drawing more than 100 million unique visitors a month, the site has failed to consistently turn a profit. 
 
 In April, Ms. Huffington raised concerns among staff when she joined the board of Uber, but she said she recused herself from coverage of the ride-sharing business. 
 
 Thrive Global, which will work with companies to improve the well-being of their employees, is slated to formally launch in November. The company’s Series A funding round was led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Mr. Lerer’s fund. 
 
 In a memo, Mr. Armstrong said an interim editorial committee will fill Ms. Huffington’s role while helping search for a new editor in chief. Ms. Huffington said there had been discussions for her to continue in some role, but she instead decided to leave in the next two or three weeks. 
 
 “I have been running Huffington Post for 11 years and I couldn’t imagine having another relationship with it,” she said. 
 
 Corrections & Amplifications: 
 
 The Huffington Post was co-founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer and Jonah Peretti. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Andrew Breitbart was also a co-founder. 
 
 Write to Lukas I. Alpert at lukas.alpert@wsj.com
– There've been no shortage of complaints about how the media is handling the candidacy of Donald Trump—but now one media outlet is putting its advertising revenue where its mouth is and axing a deal to run ads this fall from the Republican National Committee. That outlet is BuzzFeed, and in an email to employees Monday morning, company CEO Jonah Peretti outlined the reasons it has nixed what a source tells Politico was a $1.3 million ad buy promoting Trump. "The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs," Peretti writes, explaining the deal was originally signed in April, before Trump became the presumptive nominee. Although Peretti notes that BuzzFeed staff "certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company," he adds that "the tone and substance of his campaign are unique in the history of modern US politics" and that an exception must be made. "We don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason," he writes. Ben Smith, BuzzFeed's editor-in-chief, says that editorial coverage of Trump will continue as usual, noting in his own email: "This was Jonah's call, and the prerogative of a publisher." (Read the full email at BuzzFeed.)