To make sense of a turbulent and important week in media, we turn to Ben Smith who was the founding Editor in Chief of Buzzfeed News (2012 to 2020) and the former New York Times media critic (from 2020 to 2022). On the agenda: the shuttering of Buzzfeed News, the meaning of Murdoch's settlement with Dominion and what Ben is working on these days, including h ... Show More
Jul 6
The Gray Area: The End of the Human Internet
Today, we're bringing you an episode of "The Gray Area," another great show from the Vox Media Podcast Network. In this episode, host Sean Illing talks with Atlantic writer Charlie Warzel about the increasingly weird experience of being online. They discuss AI-generated content, ... Show More
42m 44s
Apr 2023
Ben Smith on the Bust of the Digital Media Age
The media world over the last few week has been rocked by major disruptions: Fox ousts Tucker Carlson, CNN fires Don Lemon, BuzzFeed News is shutting down, Twitter has become a less reliable resource, and Vice Media shutters its flagship program “Vice News Tonight.” Over the last ... Show More
35m 5s
Feb 2025
How the Right Took Over the Media
Ben Smith, former media columnist at the New York Times and now the editor-in-chief of Semafor, joins Dan to talk about today's ultra-challenging news media landscape. The industry is significantly weaker than it was in 2016, and Trump's aggressive lawsuits have the executives in ... Show More
1h 8m
May 2023
Jonah Peretti, Nick Denton and Ben Smith on digital news’ past and future
It’s our first four-way pod, featuring BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and Semafor founder (and former editor-in-chief of the recently shuttered BuzzFeed News) Ben Smith, who wrote a book about them both. Peter Kafka talks to all of them in conjunction ... Show More
36m 30s
Oct 2022
Netflix Breaks a Losing Streak, Zuck Swipes at iMessages, and Guest Ben Smith of Semafor
Netflix beat estimates for Q3 and added two million subscribers. Meta has Super-App dreams for WhatsApp, and Mark Zuckerberg is ready to take on iMessage. Plus, Twitter freezes employees' stock accounts, and an activist investor grabs a significant stake in Salesforce. Friend of ... Show More
1h 1m
Apr 2022
A tumultuous week in media: From CNN to Disney, Netflix to Twitter, WaPo to NYT
Brian Stelter covers the end of CNN+, Elon Musk's bid for Twitter and other media stories with Mara Schiavocampo, Oliver Darcy and Sara Fischer. Plus, Jonathan Haidt makes the case that social media has made American life "uniquely stupid;" White House Correspondents Association ... Show More
42m 1s
Apr 2023
Tucker & Don Out, Elon's Blue Check Wreck, and Guest Baratunde Thurston
Kara and Scott react to news that Tucker Carlson is out at Fox, and Don Lemon at CNN. Plus, Kara's got a blue check and Scott doesn't after a messy week at Twitter. Layoffs and closures are hitting left and right with Disney and Lyft layoffs, Bed, Bath & Beyond bankruptcy, and Bu ... Show More
1h 13m
<p>In this episode, Eli examines the end of the new media boom of the 2010s. His guest is Ben Smith, co-founder of Semafor and the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Genius-Rivalry-Delusion-Billion-Dollar/dp/0593299752">Traffic</a>.</p><p><br></p><p>Time Stamps: </ ... Show More
