It’s about ethics in journalism, with Ben Smith
Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Semafor, discusses the challenges of building a modern news organization in an era of declining media trust. The conversation covers the shift toward event-based revenue models and the ethical complexities of covering the same tech leaders who participate in company-sponsored conferences.
Why it matters
It provides insight into the evolving business models of digital journalism and the ongoing struggle to maintain editorial independence while relying on corporate partnerships.
Today I’m talking to Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafor . Everywhere you go, people say they don’t trust the media — and yet they’ve never consumed more of it. Audiences have moved on from legacy names in favor of Substacks and podcasts and TikTok news influencers that seem to be everywhere in our feeds. Why would anyone want to start a new global news organization in the middle of all that, when even once-storied brands like CBS News can’t seem to figure it out? Well, that’s what Ben did four years ago. He’s the guy who 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 . Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Decoder wherever you get your podcasts. Head here .
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