About Semafor

In this new interconnected world, journalism needs to deliver common facts to divergent audiences. Our biggest stories, and greatest crises, are now global: from climate change to pandemics, rising inequality to supply chain disruption, political instability to the influence of social media. Yet global trust in the media is at an all-time low. A new moment requires new thinking.

Enter Semafor. The world’s first news platform designed to meet the moment we are in. Providing audiences with an unparalleled level of journalistic transparency through innovative new forms, cutting through the noise of the news cycle with smart, distilled views and exploring competing perspectives across borders for a curious, new global audience.

Join us and make sense of a complex world with a news source you can trust.

The Semafor Approach

Transparent News

We’re exposing the architecture of our original journalism in an effort to rebuild trust from our audience. Our “Semaform” structure makes clear the lines between facts, analysis, opinion, counter-narratives, and global perspectives.

Distilled Views

Single sources can’t always capture the complexity of a story, and part of consuming the news is understanding diverse perspectives on the same facts. Our original journalism will be paired with distilled news, analysis, and opinion from a global range of sources.

Global Perspectives

We’re a global news company at birth. We believe that informed citizens of every country need to understand what drives decisions, actions, culture and power beyond their own borders.

ARTICLE

What is a Semaform, anyway? And why should you care?

VIDEO

Journalism is in trouble. But it's not all bad news.

ARTICLE

Semafor news site makes debut, intent on reinventing news

Leadership Team

Justin B. Smith

Co-Founder & CEO
Justin is the former CEO of Bloomberg Media. He was previously President of Atlantic Media, where he co-founded Quartz, served as President of The Week magazine, and led corporate strategy at The Economist Group. He received his B.S. from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ben Smith

Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Ben is the former media columnist of the New York Times. He was previously the founding editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News. Ben has covered American politics for more than a decade at Politico and the New York Daily News, among other outlets, and launched a number of political blogs.

Yinka Adegoke

Africa Editor
Yinka is a former editor at Rest of World; Quartz Africa, which he launched in 2015; and Billboard. In 2018, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African magazine. He previously wrote for Reuters, The Guardian, and The FT and has reported from more than 20 countries across Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Alexis Akwagyiram

Managing Africa Editor
Alexis was previously Digital Editor of the World Desk at the Financial Times, where he also shaped global coverage of the pandemic in his role overseeing health and science correspondents. Prior to the FT, Alexis spent six years reporting in Nigeria where he was the Bureau Chief for Reuters and previously worked as a journalist at the BBC.

Reed Albergotti

Technology Editor
Reed is a former reporter at The Washington Post, where his reporting revealed how Apple sought to bludgeon competition and stifle innovation. Other major stories of his include groundbreaking reporting for The Information on sexual harassment in venture capital and the revelation for The Wall Street Journal of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, which led to the bestselling book “Wheelmen.”

Gina Chon

Business & Technology Editor
Gina has covered war, high finance, and most recently the U.S. economy, as a columnist at Reuters Breakingviews. Prior, she served as U.S. Enforcement Correspondent at the Financial Times. She was also at Quartz in the early days, and before that spent seven years at the Wall Street Journal in New York, Baghdad and Detroit. She’s the author of a 2010 book on the aftermath of the genocide in Cambodia.

Gina Chua

Executive Editor
Gina is the former Executive Editor of Reuters. She was previously editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and the Wall Street Journal Asia, as well as deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. A native of Singapore, Gina transitioned in late 2020, making her one of the most senior transgender journalists in the industry.

Steve Clemons

Editor-at-Large
Steve is the former Editor at Large of The Hill. He was previously Washington Editor at Large of The Atlantic and served in senior editorial roles at National Journal and Quartz. He is also proprietor of the popular political blog The Washington Note and host of The Bottom Line on Al Jazeera English. He previously served as Executive Vice President of the Economic Strategy Institute and was the founding Executive Director of the Center for the National Interest.

Kellen Henry

Head of Product
Kellen spent eight years at The New York Times, most recently leading the Reader Experience team at Wirecutter. She worked previously on NYT’s core news products, creating experimental storytelling formats, building newsroom workflow tools and launching the paper’s first responsive home page. She has also worked at the intersection of news and product at The Associated Press and Bloomberg.

Liz Hoffman

Business & Finance Editor
Liz is a former senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered corporate dealmaking, banking and the world of high finance. She is the author of Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World’s Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink, a kaleidoscopic account of the financial carnage of the pandemic.

Al Lucca

Head of Design
Al has been leading design and creative teams for more than ten years. Before joining Semafor, he led the design teams at Axios and for streaming platforms at ViacomCBS.  Throughout his twenty years as a designer, he has worked with a wide range of private and non-profit organizations, including the United Nations, Medicins Sans Frontieres, MTV Italy, SKY Italy, Natura, Grupo Positivo, and Grupo Lumen.

Tasneem Nashrulla

Breaking News Editor
Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Tasneem worked for the Hindustan Times before relocating to the U.S., where she earned a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University. She was previously Senior Reporter and Deputy News Director at BuzzFeed News, where she covered major national news stories including the trials of Derek Chauvin and Harvey Weinstein, the Capitol riot, and the pandemic.

Rachel Oppenheim

Chief Revenue Officer
Rachel is the former Head of Industry at the New York Times. She was previously the Times’ Director of Sales for Story[X], where she led multiple first-of-their-kind partnerships with Google, Verizon and other companies. Rachel is a former Digiday “Future Leader” award winner and the recipient of a B.A from Emory University in Philosophy and Journalism.

Meera Pattni

Head of Global Communications
Meera previously served as SVP, Communications at Condé Nast where she spearheaded the company's global overhaul of its business and editorial operations. Prior, she spent almost a decade at VICE Media Group overseeing corporate and brand communications for its news, digital publishing, creative agency, studio production and television divisions. Meera started her career in journalism as a news producer for the BBC.

Prashant Rao

Senior Editor
Prashant has had one of journalism’s widest-ranging careers: Raised in Hong Kong and educated in London, he’s been the Iraq Bureau chief for AFP, the deputy Europe Business Editor for the New York Times, and the International Editor of The Atlantic. He leads Semafor’s global publication, Flagship, from London, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

Benjy Sarlin

Washington Bureau Chief
Benjy joined Semafor after nine years at NBC News, where he covered the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns as well as major legislative battles in Congress, from immigration reform to the Inflation Reduction Act. He most recently served as Policy Editor, working under Meet The Press moderator Chuck Todd to shape on-air and online coverage. He previously covered national politics for The Daily Beast and Talking Points Memo.

Garett Wiley

Chief Financial Officer
Garett was previously Operating Partner at Optum Ventures and Partner at Palmyra Investments. He has cofounded a series of globally focused startups in industries such as financial services, computer games, education technology, and digital media. He is a lawyer by training and began his career as an ethnographic filmmaker.

Mark Wilkie

Head of Engineering
Mark is the former CTO of BuzzFeed. He was previously head of technology at Kinja Media, a startup founded by former Gawker Media CEO Nick Denton. Mark was a Senior Software Architect at United Health Technologies and has more than 25 years of experience delivering software products and technology.

Justin B. Smith

Co-Founder & CEO

Justin is the former CEO of Bloomberg Media. He was previously President of Atlantic Media where he led The Atlantic's revitalization and founded Quartz. Prior to The Atlantic, Justin served as President of The Week, and led global corporate strategy at The Economist Group. He is a Henry Crown Fellow, co-Founder of Breaking Media and a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ben Smith

Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Ben is the former media columnist of the New York Times. He was previously the founding editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News. Ben has covered American politics for more than a decade at Politico and the New York Daily News, among other outlets, and launched a number of political blogs.

Yinka Adegoke

Africa Editor

Alexis Akwagyiram

Managing Editor, Africa

Reed Albergotti

Technology Editor

Gina Chon

Business & Technology Editor

Gina Chua

Executive Editor

Steve Clemons

Editor-at-Large

Kellen Henry

Head of Product

Liz Hoffman

Business & Finance Editor

Al Lucca

Head of Design

Tasneem Nashrulla

Breaking News Editor

Rachel Oppenheim

Chief Revenue Officer

Meera Pattni

Head of Global Communications

Joe Posner

Head of Video

Prashant Rao

Senior Editor

Benjy Sarlin

Washington Bureau Chief

Garett Wiley

Chief Financial Officer

Mark Wilkie

Head of Engineering

Our Approach to Advertising

Independent, quality journalism requires the support of great brands and partners. Our advertisers are a key force in supporting our newsroom but have no bearing on our editorial coverage, and we maintain a strict separation between news and third-party ads.

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Semafor’s mission is built upon fostering trust amongst our readership and combating the misinformation that abounds in today’s news landscape. Our coverage seeks to portray different points of view across every story, grounded in a singular set of facts. That same commitment is what guides our advertising principles.

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To that end, our advertising space is open to all points of view – cultural, political, social and otherwise. Semafor reserves the right to review all ads and to reject any that are determined to be in violation of our principles and ad acceptability standards.

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Semafor will ensure that all advertising is clearly presented as commercial content, distinct from editorial content. The nature of an advertising relationship must be transparent so that it is clear to the audience that they are seeing a commercial message.

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Semafor prohibits advertising that promotes hate speech, discrimination, violence as well as advertising that knowingly misleads readers via fraudulence or inaccuracy or that violates federal or local stipulations protecting trademark, copyright, libel, stock involvement and political advertising.