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. Before joining Bloomberg, Smith worked for Atlantic Media, The Week magazine and The Economist. Career Smith began his career at the Department of State in 1991, working in the U.S. Embassy at Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, under Ambassador Edward Brynn. After leaving the State Department, Smith joined the International Herald Tribune. He worked in Paris and in Hong Kong, where he helped build the newspaper's conference business. Smith then joined The Economist as the head of corporate strategy, working from London, Hong Kong and New York City. In 2001, Smith joined The Week, where he helped launch a U.S. version of the weekly news magazine founded in London. In 2005, Smith was promoted to president of the magazine. In 2006, he had helped The Week reach more than 443,000 U.S. subscribers. While at The Week, Smith was named to AdAge’s “40 Under 40” list. In 2007, Smith was hired as president of Atlantic Consumer Media at The Atlantic. Smith was later promoted to president of Atlantic Media Company, which gave him responsibility over National Journal and Government Executive. By 2010, under his leadership, The Atlantic made $1.8 million profit, the first time the magazine had been profitable in decades. While at The Atlantic, Smith oversaw the launch of several digital brands. In 2009, the company launched The Atlantic Wire, a news content and aggregation site now called The Wire. Site traffic reached nearly one million monthly visitors within one year of launch. In 2012, while leading Atlantic Media, Smith founded a new global business news brand, Quartz. In 2013, Atlantic Media launched Defense One for reporting on national security.