NY Times Poaches Ben Smith From BuzzFeed

Ben Smith

Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed, who built a hard-hitting news operation within a digital media organization better known for clickbait and listicles, will be The New York Times’s next media columnist.

The NY Times reports Smith will leave the digital news outlet to replace Jim Rutenberg, who recently became a writer at large at The Times, splitting duties between the politics desk and The Times Magazine. Before Mr. Rutenberg, the columnist position was held for years by David Carr, the prolific media columnist who died in 2015.

An announcement on Tuesday — signed by Dean Baquet, the executive editor; Joe Kahn, the managing editor; and Ellen Pollock, the business editor — called Smith “a relentless innovator who helped change the shape of modern journalism.” He is expected to start on March 2.

“Ben not only understands the seismic changes remaking media, he has lived them — and in some cases, led them,” the editors said.

BuzzFeed hired Smith in 2012 as editor in chief to help start its news division, BuzzFeed News.