Who Is Danielle C. Belton?

Danielle Belton is the former Editor-in-Chief of HuffPost, a Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization that publishes original, digital-first reporting on politics, lifestyle, entertainment, and more. When her hiring was announced in 2021, it was called a "landmark event" in an article by Digiday, with past staffers praising her empathy and voice. In her first year, Axios reported that HuffPost was profitable. Since then, HuffPost has been profitable for three years, breaking numerous traffic records, reaching 560 million cross-platform page views in September 2024. 

At HuffPost, Belton improved overall newsroom diversity and relaunched HuffPost Voices as a multiethnic, intersectional vertical celebrating the lives and cultures of people of color, women, and queer folk. And in 2022, HuffPost created Indigenous Voices, one of the first verticals by a mainstream publication for Indigenous peoples in the United States. 

In January 2025, Belton stepped away from her role at HuffPost to save jobs after the newsroom faced severe layoffs due to industry headwinds. She is currently writing a humorous memoir based on her experience as a journalist living with bipolar disorder. She was diagnosed in December 2005 while working as a staff writer for The Bakersfield Californian, overcoming multiple hospitalizations over several years. After finding a treatment that worked, she started the award-winning pop culture and politics blog The Black Snob in 2007. Her penchant for humor and parody, often infused in the blog, led to her becoming the first Black woman to lead a writer's room in late-night television in 2012 when she was named head writer of the TV show "Don't Sleep" on BET Networks.

Belton was previously the "beloved" and award-winning Editor-in-Chief of The Root, where she grew the Black interest news site from 3 million unique visitors per month to more than 12 million in her first year as the site's lead editor. In her six-year tenure, The Root broke many personal records, including reaching an all-time-high 20.9 million unique monthly visitors in January 2019. Before The Root, Belton wrote for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Essence Magazine, The Guardian, The American Prospect, and many others.

Passionate about both journalism and her community, Belton has and continues to give back by mentoring young women of color, including several young Black female journalists, and was formerly part of the "Brain Trust" of the mentorship not-for-profit Unlock Her Potential and currently mentors journalists through National Association of Black Journalists' program. She also advocates for the destigmatization of mental illness and is on the Leadership Circle for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in NYC. 

A sought-after public speaker, Belton speaks on many topics, from race and journalism to gender, politics, culture, entertainment, history, mental health and wellness, and much, much more. She gave the commencement speech for the Craig Newmark School of Journalism in 2021. She has also spoken at numerous conferences and for many organizations, including Leading Women Defined, Chief, Davidson College, the Women’s March in Roanoke, Va., the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Baltimore Chapter’s Torchbearer’s Breakfast, the National Association of Black Journalists Convention, Yale University’s Black Solidarity Conference, and Duke University’s “Race in Space” Conference. Belton has also appeared as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, ABC's Nightline, TV One, Good Morning America, NPR, PBS, and many more.

Winner of several accolades, Belton was honored by the International Women's Media Foundation in 2024 as one of their “35 for 35 News Industry Leaders,” and she was among the "10 Women to Watch" named by Editor & Publisher in 2021. And Women's eNews awarded her the Rita Henley Jensen Award for her work as a newsroom leader in 2019.

Originally from Florissant, Mo, a municipality in the greater St. Louis area, Belton currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.