Today I’m talking to Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafor. Ben ran BuzzFeed News at the height of the Facebook traffic boom, and even wrote a book about it, called Traffic, which he discussed with me on Decoder back in 2023. 

Semafor, which is only four years old, is now a fast-growing and profitable media company, which makes about half of its revenue from events. So I wanted to talk to Ben about how that all works, and what it feels like to navigate the ethical conflicts that seem to be everywhere in media right now. 

Links: 

• Jonah Peretti explains why he sold BuzzFeed | Decoder
• What’s after the social media era in news? | Decoder (2023)
• Semafor raises $30 Million after first profitable year | The Wrap
• Semafor’s new AI tool helped boil down its flagship conference | Nieman Lab
• Semafor launches Silicon Valley & The World | Semafor
• Semafor takes aim at Davos as events surpass half Its revenue | Adweek
• Semafor Is Betting Big on 'Anti-Scale' Video | Adweek
• Semafor wants to be ‘business outlet of record in the Gulf” | Press Gazette

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Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder’s producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our Supervising Producer is Greg Ott and our Editorial Director is Kevin McShane. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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