• by Sara Guaglione , May 25, 2017

Editor-in-chief of the Observer Ken Kurson resigned Wednesday. The publication was owned by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Kurson, who is a friend of Kushner’s, has held the title since January 2013. According to multiple news reports, Kurson will head to advisory firm Teneo Holdings to become a senior managing director.

The Observer is actively searching for Kurson's replacement.

Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, sold his share of the Observer to the family trust in January in order to take a senior adviser role in Trump's administration. Joseph Meyer, Kushner’s brother-in-law, a chairman of Observer Media Group, took over as publisher.

In a Wednesday memo to staff, Kurson dished colorful words about the criticism the publication has received over the years.

“You understand the reason people talk about us — like, a lot — care about what we say, break our balls, is that, even when we’re allegedly failing to live up to some ideal that was established in Arthur Carter’s townhouse 30 years ago, our readers and our peers want us to be great. That’s a proud burden to carry. And I’m proud to have carried it alongside every one of you,” he wrote, according to WWD.

The weekly paper was founded in 1987 by former investment banker Arthur Carter and aimed to cover city culture, media, politics and real estate.

Kurson also defended Kushner in the memo, as well as thanked him for “giving me the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“[Kushner] never received the credit he deserves for supporting independent journalism and contributing to the cultural fabric of our city. People can snark it up all they like — they certainly will — but at the end of the day, this guy spent a ton of money and mostly let us do what we thought was best.

"The Observer wouldn’t exist were it not for the willingness, amid a torrent of nasty criticism and nasty bullshit, of the Kushner family to cut those checks,” Kurson wrote.

In November, the Observer shut down its weekly print edition after nearly 30 years. “New York” was dropped from the title to reflect a focus on a national audience and to match the name of the Web site, which rebranded as Observer.com in 2015.

Rumors circulated at the end of last year that Kushner was looking for potential buyers of the publication. Kushner bought The Observer in 2006 when he was 25.