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BuzzFeed Raises $15.5 Million

BuzzFeed keeps growing. After making a statement by appointing Politico’s Ben Smith as editor-in-chief, TechCrunch reports that the news aggregator raised $15.5 million in financing from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Lerer Ventures, Hearst Media, Softbank and RRE Capital.

It’s also beefing up its board by adding Patrick Kerins, general partner at NEA, bringing on former Huffington Post president Greg Coleman as an adviser and promoting Ken Lerer, co-founder of Huffington Post, to executive chairman.

Regarding the site’s direction, BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti told TechCrunch, “The biggest shift for us is refocusing under Ben [Smith] as an organization that does real reporting and original content.”

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