FW: Join us for Semafor's first pre-launch event

Ben Smith -

Hey friends,

I just wanted to give you a quick update on Semafor's progress, and to pass on the invitation below to what I hope will be a really interesting morning of conversation.

Over the last few months, as we described to the Times last week, we've finished raising money and begun hiring great journalists and building a product. Their quick description of what we showed them:

News articles will be broken into sections distinguishing facts from opinion. Reporters’ bylines will be as prominent as headlines. And journalists will be permitted to offer their analysis on social media....
Semafor will start with a website and email newsletters. Among its first hires: Liz Hoffman from The Wall Street Journal, who will lead business and finance coverage; Reed Albergotti of The Washington Post, who will head tech reporting; and Kadia Goba, a political reporter from BuzzFeed News. Ben Smith said he was close to hiring a reporter to work with him on a media column.
The founders expect to start with a focus on finance, technology, climate, international security, media and U.S. politics and policy.
News articles, minimally designed with a pale yellow background and cobalt blue headlines, will be broken down into sections to distinguish between factual information, analysis from the reporter and a range of perspectives on the news.
“We’re trying to take the black box of the news article, particularly a reported hard-news piece, and open it up on every axis,” Ben Smith said.

Events will also be a big part of what we do. Next week, we're having a conversation on journalism at Gallup Hall in Washington, D.C. under the headline "Signal and Noise" and sponsored by the Knight Foundation.

The event embodies some of the values Semafor hopes to deliver: Open, clear-eyed conversations on hard issues, which include tough questions to powerful figures. You can register to watch the livestream here if you haven't already.

And if you've got any ideas for questions I should ask the people I'll be interviewing (list below) please send them my way!

Have a great Fourth of July.

Ben

On Thu, Jun 30 2022 at 8:01 AM, Ben Smith <bsmith@semafor.com> wrote:

Hi - Ben Smith here. Thank you for being an early subscriber to Semafor. We can't wait to show you what we've been up to when we launch in the fall.

But before that happens, I'd like to invite you to join Semafor CEO Justin Smith, Executive Editor Gina Chua and me virtually on July 7 for the first in a series of pre-launch events on the future of news.

This one is called Signal and Noise, and we're hoping to get to the heart of some of the hardest questions facing journalism after a decade dominated by social media and partisan polarization. 

Gina and I will be asking the tough questions of a wide range of figures, and hope you’ll check it out. 

Register
The Details 
Thursday, July 7th, 2022
8:20AM - 10:00AM ET 

I’ll be doing 1-on-1 interviews with Politico Founding Editor John Harris, Washington Post Technology Columnist Taylor Lorenz and Fox News Host Tucker Carlson. 

Gina Chua will host a panel with author and journalist Wesley Lowrey, Al Jazeera English Host Femi Oke and The Wall Street Journal’s former Washington Executive Editor Gerald Seib. 

With a sponsor perspective from the Knight Foundation’s VP/Journalism Jim Brady. 

And please feel free to forward the invite to friends and colleagues - we'd love for them to join us! 

Ben


 
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