Digg founder Kevin Rose has resigned from his role in the company, according to a report published on Friday by TechCrunch.

UPDATE: Rose has confirmed this news in a tweet, which reads in part, "I'll continue advising Digg [and serve] on the board of directors and taping Diggnation (as I have been since [Matt Williams] joined)."

Rose founded Digg in December of 2004, and quickly saw the social news site become one of the hottest in the then burgeoning Web 2.0 space. Over the years, however, Digg's prominence has declined, and Rose has spent less time with the company and more time on other projects, like the newsletter/podcast "Foundation."

TechCrunch says that Rose is close to completing funding for a new startup.

Rumors of Rose's departure from Digg have swirled around the echo chamber for months. In light of the various challenges faced by the company — including layoffs, management changes and plummeting traffic — we aren't especially surprised to see Rose moving on.

Almost immediately after the launch of "New Digg" in August, users responded by revolting and leaving the service en masse. Competitors like Reddit and StumbleUpon have benefited from the user exodus, and though Digg has tried to realign its vision, it hasn't had much success in winning back users.

We've reached out to Digg for comment and will update if we learn more.