According to some reports, the Huffington Post has raised $15 million in a new round of investment. But nobody really knows for sure whether that's true, yet! Let us say right up front that if it is true—and the Times UK says it is—this will be the coup of the media meltdown. Raising cash like that in this economic environment is impressive, and we would have to tip our hats to HuffPo, and acknowledge that we have wildly underestimated them. Here are all of the details from various reports on Arianna's maybe-triumph:

  • The original story said only that Huffpo "will confirm within the next week that it has completed a $15 million (£10 million) fundraising from investors."
  • PaidContent says that their sources have confirmed to them that the investor is Oak Investment Partners, which has invested in several other digital media companies. Before this, the site's backers had put in $25 million into the site. PaidContent estimates the deal's valuation of HuffPo at around $100 million.
  • But! AlleyInsider says that "A source close to the company tells us these reports are 'stupid and false' and 'wrong across the board.'" Then they add, "HuffPo cofounder Ken Lerer is an investor in our parent company." HMMM.
  • HuffPo itself is not commenting.
  • But you might reasonably say: Sure, their traffic has been great through the election season. But won't it fall off a cliff now that the election is over? It sure looks like it according to Quantcast's numbers (see below). But maybe not! Number-crunching wunderkind Nate Silver's fivethirtyeight.com, HuffPo has actually increased its average traffic by 9% since the election.

The truth will come out shortly. If these reports are accurate, we're impressed.