• by Sara Guaglione , April 10, 2019

Bustle's founder and editor-in-chief of six years, Kate Ward, is leaving the company. Ward made the announcement via Twitter and Instagram.

“I am so proud of everything we have accomplished together, which made the enormously, enormously tough decision to leave @bustle Digital Group all the more difficult,” she wrote.

Ward said she has built and watched Bustle, a millennial women’s lifestyle site, grow from its creation in 2013 to a brand that reaches more than 50 million readers a month. She has also grown the Bustle Digital Group's four other brands, which reach over 80 million monthly readers.

Bustle Digital Group owns the millennial focused sites Romper, for millennial parents, Elite Daily, another site for millennial women, The Zoe Report, a fashion and beauty site, and Mic, a news site purchased by the company last November.

“I can’t imagine leaving this amazing team at a better time — there are few publishers better poised for success in the coming years, and I can’t wait to watch the company we built in a small Williamsburg townhouse continue to grow,” Ward wrote in her announcement.

“Though I physically will only be at BDG for another month or so to help out during a transitionary period, I will always be there in spirit for every new milestone.”

Bustle recently purchased Gawker, Flavorpill Media and The Outline, which it bough last month.

CEO-cofounder Bryan Goldberg told Adweek he wants the company to ultimately own 12 to 15 media brands.