You may have noticed that the media world has undergone some seismic changes over recent years. And Ben Smith has been there for them all - from reporting for New York tabloids to turning Buzzfeed into a major news brand and having a column for the New York Times. He now runs Semafor, a globally focused news publication he founded with ex-Bloomberg News exec Justin Smith. It is a typically ambitious project.
Smith also has a book out, “Traffic”, explaining what he has seen and learnt over the course of his career to date. On the podcast, he outlined setting up the BuzzFeed newsroom, where he thinks the media is going next and, yes, that dossier. (I asked him about the dress too, obviously.) We started by discussing the recent major media news - the departures of Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon from Fox News and CNN respectively.
The conversation is a fascinating insight from someone who has been at the heart of so many of the most exciting, and difficult, changes in media.
Cable News Chaos as Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon Out [updated]
After All That, I Would Still Publish the Dossier - The Atlantic
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Ben Smith on Tucker Carlson, the Dossier and the Dress