BuzzFeed COO Steps Down, Joins Lerer Ventures as Adviser

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BuzzFeed President & COO Jon Steinberg attends the 2013 Adweek Hot List Gala on December 2, 2013 in New York City.

Image: Mike Pont/FilmMagic/Getty Images

By Jason Abbruzzese2014-05-12 20:46:31 +0200

BuzzFeed's chief operating officer and president Jon Steinberg has stepped down from his role at the viral content site.

He will remain with BuzzFeed as an advisor for the next six months. Steinberg will join investment group Lerer Ventures also in the role of advisor, according to a memo from BuzzFeed.

See also: Disney Wanted to Buy BuzzFeed, Report Says

Ken Lerer, the managing director of Lerer Ventures, is chairman of BuzzFeed and the cofounder of The Huffington Post.

Steinberg joined BuzzFeed as the company's 15th employee and spent four years helping to build out the site's social advertising offerings.

"We're so thankful for Jon's leadership that helped get us here. He will always be family to us. We are growing and continuing our mission of building a media company that is anchored around social, and a business that is transforming the advertising industry," Steinberg and BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in the memo.

BuzzFeed traffic has risen sharply during Steinberg's time at the company. The site claimed in December to have reached 130 million monthly unique visitors.

The growth of BuzzFeed has attracted the interest of major investors including Hearst Ventures. The site had recently been in talks for a sale to Disney with an asking price of $1 billion.

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Topics: Business, buzzfeed, Media