Rafat Ali, the founder and editor of Santa Monica-based ContentNext, which is now owned by Guardian News & Media, has stepped down, according to a statement from the firm. ContentNext--which publishes Paidcontent, mocoNews, and contentSutra--was acquired two years ago in a deal which was originally worth around $30M based on earnout. Ali, in a statement to readers, said "I have been wrestling with this for months now, and the two-year mark under the Guardian and the eight-year mark since I launched the first site, seems appropriate enough as a closure point." Ali had recently moved from Santa Monica to New York, and said he would be planning a "head-clearing trip of a lifetime." ContentNext had originally started as his personal blog, after he lost a job immediately after September 11th.