Ben Smith

Ben Smith is a media columnist for The New York Times, a position he has held since March 2020.

Smith served as BuzzFeed's Editor-in-Chief from January 2012 to January 2020. In that position, he was responsible for overseeing and expanding editorial coverage and producing original content for the first true social news organization. He is known for having built BuzzFeed news into a respected news organization that still featured its trademark lighter content.

Prior to BuzzFeed, Smith was a senior political writer for POLITICO from 2007 to 2011, where he wrote a daily blog that Time Magazine named as one of the "Five Essential Blogs in 2010."

In 2008, Smith covered the Democratic presidential primary, with a focus on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Before POLITICO, he wrote a column and a blog for the New York Daily News. He also started New York’s first political blog, The Politicker, for the New York Observer, as well as the political site, Room Eight, after working as City Hall Bureau Chief for the New York Sun.

Smith has written for many leading publications including the Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, The New York Post, The New Republic, Legal Affairs, Reason and In These Times.

Smith graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale University with a degree in Linguistics. He was born and raised in Manhattan, and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.