The brainchild of Ben Smith, former media reporter for The New York Times, and Justin Smith, ex-CEO of Bloomberg Media, Semafor has raised $25 million and hired more than 50 staff members since both men quit their previous jobs in January. They are not related. Semafor’s website, with a distinctive yellow-tinged backdrop that looks like a newspaper left out in the sun, went live shortly after 6 a.m. ET today, with eight newsletters in place as well as an events business.
Justin Smith and Ben Smith, co-proprietors of a new media start-up that has captured the attention of the online news world, revealed on Tuesday the name for their venture: Semafor.
Gina Chua, a top editor at Reuters, will become the executive editor of a new media start-up helmed by Ben Smith and Justin Smith. Chua’s hire was announced on Tuesday by Ben Smith, who left his role as a media columnist for The New York Times in January to start a global news organization with Justin Smith, the former chief executive of Bloomberg Media. Ben Smith will serve as editor in chief of the new outlet, with Chua reporting to him.
Justin Smith, the former head of Bloomberg Media, and Ben Smith, the former New York Times media columnist, have approached some of the biggest names in media in an effort to raise $20 million-$30 million to launch a news organization by fall of 2022, according to people they’ve pitched. The Smiths, who tell investors they’ll burn through $50 million in cash before breaking even, have approached Bob Iger, Michael Bloomberg and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, sources say.
Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin Smith will step down from the business news giant to launch his own media company. A Bloomberg spokesperson confirmed the news, and that Scott Havens will succeed Smith as CEO. New York Times media columnist Ben Smith will join Justin Smith at the new venture.
Ben Smith: President Trump will try to put the media on the ballot, and reporters face the increasing temptation to posture for those most eager to oust him.
Exclusives
In the span of just a few weeks, the top editors of two leading digital-news outfits called it quits. Ben Smith, who ran BuzzFeed News for eight years, took a job writing a column at the New York Times; Lydia Polgreen is leaving HuffPost to oversee a podcast company. Two does not make a trend, but it does raise a question: Do their departures — smack in the middle of the busiest news cycle in years — say something about the troubled state of the digital news media?
Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News built his division from scratch into the country’s premiere digital-native newsroom. Now media’s Boy Wonder finds his operation — and his company — at an inflection point.
