‘I’M SO EXCITED’

Ben Smith Leaving New York Times for ‘Global’ Media Startup

After just over a year at the Times, the former BuzzFeed chief is packing up his desk to pursue a new media startup.

Media columnist Ben Smith announced Tuesday that he is leaving The New York Times, after just over a year at the paper, to launch a new media startup venture. The former BuzzFeed editor in chief explained his new outlet in a Tuesday morning interview with the Times: “There are 200 million people who are college-educated, who read in English, but who no one is really treating like an audience, but who talk to each other and talk to us,” Smith said. “That’s who we see as our audience.” He added on Twitter: “I’m so excited about this.” Smith will join forces with Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith, who recently stepped down from his post to launch the media entity in the hopes of creating a “new kind of global news media company that serves unbiased journalism to a truly global audience.”