Updated
SB Nation, a network of local sports blogs (thata4a4s what the a4ASBa4 stands for), has raised $10.5 million in new funding led by Khosla Ventures. After news of the funding was leaked to All Things Digital, chief executive Jim Bankoff confirmed it over email.
The Washington, D.C.-based company has been around since 2003, when it was known as Athletic Nation. The companya4a4s big idea is that the audience for sports news is fragmented &8212' fans care less about general news than they do about their specific sport and team. So SB Nation has built out a massive network of focused sites &8212' the company says there are currently 289 blogs in the network. At the same time, it keeps costs down by just paying its contributors a monthly stipend, acccording to an Inc magazine profile of the company.
Prior to joining SB Nation in 2008, Bankoff had plenty of experience in the blog world &8212' he was an executive at AOL, where he oversaw the acquisition of blog network Weblogs.
SB Nation has been growing quickly. It sees 8 million unique visitors and 40 million pageviews per month, Inc reported. (Ia4a4ve asked Bankoff if he has updated traffic numbers, and Ia4a4ll update if I hear back.) And PaidContent says that the company has almost reached the break-even point.
Previous investors Accel Partners and Comcast Interactive Capital both participated in the new round, which brings SB Nationa4a4s total funding to $23.5 million.
Update: Bankoff just emailed me to say that SB Nation&'s Google Analytics numbers put SB Nation at 17 million monthly uniques, while Quantcast says 9 million. Either way, the company has had consistent growth, usually doubling or tripling its traffic every year.
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Companies: Accel Partners, Comcast Interactive Capital, Khosla Ventures, SB Nation
People: Jim Bankoff
Companies: Accel Partners, Comcast Interactive Capital, Khosla Ventures, SB Nation
People: Jim Bankoff
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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