Founder Rafat Ali to leave ContentNext

Rafat Ali, founder and editor of ContentNext, publisher of digital media news website paidContent , is leaving the company at the start of July. He started paidContent as a blog in 2002, and later added three other sites, paidContent.uk, mocoNews and contentSutra, before the business was purchased by Guardian News & Media, which publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk, in 2008. New York-based ContentNext now has about 600,000 unique users for its website network. Ali, a former managing editor of Silicon Alley Reporter and reporter on Inside.com, expanded the company to 23 staff and took investment from the venture capital firm Greycroft Partners before the sale to GNM. Tim Brooks, managing director of GNM, said: "As anyone who follows the company and reads our sites knows, Rafat has done an amazing job of building ContentNext from the ground up and we wish him every success in the future." Ernie Sander, who has been the managing editor at ContentNext for the past 18 months, will assume a wider strategic role. Co-editor Staci D Kramer will continue in her role. GNM's accounts for the year to 29 March 2009, published earlier this year, revealed that the publisher paid £4m to buy ContentNext in 2008 . GNM also publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".