Ben Smith — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, a news website formed in early 2022.
Served as a media columnist at The New York Times from 2020 to 2022.
Editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News from 2011 to 2020.
Wrote for Politico from 2008 to 2011, covering the Democratic presidential primary.
Started three New York City political blogs: The Politicker, The Daily Politics, and Room Eight between 2004 and 2006.
Graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1999.

Biography

Benjamin Eli Smith is an American journalist and media executive. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, a news website he launched with Justin Smith in early 2022. Prior to this, Smith was a media columnist at The New York Times from 2020 to 2022. From 2011 to 2020, he served as the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, where he focused on strengthening the organization's investigative journalism unit and interviewed Barack Obama for BuzzFeed's first presidential interview in 2015.