Semafor is a news website founded in 2022 by Ben Smith (the former editor-in-chief of

BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, it ...

and media columnist at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'') and

Justin B. Smith Justin B. Smith (born August 13, 1969) is an American media executive. He co-founded Semafor, a global news organization in 2022. He was previously the chief executive officer of Bloomberg Media Group. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Smith worked for ...

, the former CEO of Bloomberg Media Group.

Etymology

The name of the publication derives from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

word ''semaphore''. According to ''The New York Times'', the term refers to "a visual signaling apparatus often involving flags, lights and arm gestures".

History

In early January 2022, Ben Smith announced he would be leaving ''The New York Times'' to start a global news venture aimed at the 200 million college-educated English readers. Justin B. Smith would lead the business side of the new venture and Ben Smith would be the top editor. The news site says it will break news and supplant complex news stories. In a memo that Justin Smith sent to "close confidants", he described a new company that would "reimagine quality global journalism" aimed at what he said was an "English-speaking, college-educated, professional class" that had "lost trust in all sources of news and information". The name of the new venture, ''Semafor'', was announced in March 2022. In September 2022,

David Weigel David Weigel (born September 26, 1981) is an American journalist. He works for ''Semafor''. Weigel previously covered politics for ''The Washington Post,'' ''Slate,'' and ''Bloomberg Politics'' and is a contributing editor for ''Reason'' magaz ...

left ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' for Semafor. In November 2022, it was reported that Semafor had received grant funds from

Sam Bankman-Fried Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried (born March 6, 1992), also known by the initialism SBF, is an American suspected fraudster, entrepreneur, investor, and former billionaire. Bankman-Fried was the founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX ...

, founder of the now-bankrupt

cryptocurrency exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

FTX. Semafor faced some criticism for not returning the money but noted that investments by outsiders were structured to preserve editorial independence. A few weeks after FTX's collapse, Semafor announced that it would await the conclusion of government probes into FTX and follow their eventual recommendations on what to do with the investment.

References

External links

* {{Improve categories, date=November 2022 Internet properties established in 2022 Publications established in 2022 American news websites