Huffington Post closes $25 million round

Liberal news outlet The Huffington Post has announced its latest venture funding round. The upswing: It is $25 million, not $15 million as previously rumored.

The funding comes from the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Oak Venture Partners. No valuation was provided, but AllThingsD's Kara Swisher suggests it's slightly under $100 million. The company has 46 employees.

Fred Harman of Oak Venture partners will join Huffington Post's board. Previous investors include Softbank Capital and Greycroft Partners.

This is the company's Series C funding round. Traffic to its Web site skyrocketed amid the hotly contested presidential election this fall, but The Huffington Post--started by a team led by political pundit and author Arianna Huffington--has been making strides to expand beyond the left-of-center political coverage that made it famous. Political news sites, many critics speculate, may see a significant drop in traffic now that there's no presidential election filling up headlines, and that's not a good thing when ad spending is tightening amid the economic downturn.

Local news, more video, and a fund for investigative journalism are next on the plate for Huffington Post, according to a press release, in addition to possible acquisitions. There is also a "world news" page in the works, hinted a source close to the company, who added that other coverage areas such as sports are discussed but are further from a launch.

[steve315]

So I'm wondering what a blog needs $25 mill for? Transportation and room and board for reporters to cover stories? Aside from that--which I'm sure could add up--what else would 46 (I recall reading that many) employees require: half mill salaries?<br /><br />I'm really half-serious/half-facetious. What would a political blog do with the dough? And considering that the election's over, what would make that a sensible investment?

[Lordcron]

Wow. I'm impressed. The Huffington Post will use it well. I love that site and I think we need more sites that offset the right.

[Penguinisto]

I'm thinking the money may have come in anticipation of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" being re-instated on radio and broadcast television.<br /><br />@steve 315: Most of it likely goes towards infrastructure costs. Once you get a high enough traffic site, you get to buy your own servers, networking equipment, bandwidth, and some rack space for them @ a datacenter or two. Even a small operation can run you into some serious cash.

[SodaFef]

@ Penguinisto: You can buy a lot of servers with $25M! A company that size with a good architecture probably doesn't cost any more than $1M additional hardware from what they have now.

[NoVista]

I find it amusing that the liberal values of civil liberties and freedom of speech are alive and well at HuffPo.<br /><br />They don't censor. But they do 'approve' comments.<br /><br />Or not.

[SodaFef]

@NoVista: I don't blame them for moderating/approving comments. Remember whom they have to deal with ;)