Arianna and Croesus

Huffpo is apparently on the verge of raising $15 million from the likes of Oak Investment Partners to replenish the political web publisher’s nearly depleted coffers.

Word was the site needed to raise at least $5 million by January to make it another year.

If I were investing in a political site, I’d want to see three months worth of post election traffic data to get a baseline for projections. And if I were investing in a publisher at a time when ad revenues are in an as-yet-undetermined downtrend, I’d do my best to delay buying for another month or three. And if I knew my negotiating partner was a few days from the abyss, I wouldn’t be catching the express train to conclude a deal. Why not walk?

So Arianna has got to be a hell of salesperson to get VCs to accomodate her burn-driven timeline in this dire environment.

Arianna’s feat is triply impressive because VCs rarely invest in publishers. While tech companies can grow exponentially (for a period), a publisher’s growth is linear.