Washington Post golden boy Ezra Klein is considering leaving the paper to start his own venture, Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone reported this afternoon.

Klein runs the paper’s highly branded Wonkblog, where he and five underbloggers write about political and policy issues, bringing in about 4 million page views per month.

Klein is still in talks with the paper about staying, according to Calderone.

If he does decide to leave, his departure would be a major blow to the Post, where he’s built an influential and popular brand within the newsroom over the past few years. On Wonkblog, Klein and his staff break down complicated policy ideas in a digestible, straightforward way — and often with charts. The blog has grown to become its own newsroom fiefdom, with spin-offs like The Switch and Know More.

Klein joined the paper in 2009 from The American Prospect at the age of 24. He is also an an analyst for MSNBC and a columnist for Bloomberg View.

Photo courtesy of the Washington Post