Career
He is currently editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed. Smith"s first professional reporting job was doing the crime beat for The Indianapolis Star. He then moved to Latvia to take a position at The Baltic Times, and also began reporting for Wall Street Journal Europe (until 2001).
Smith wrote for the news outlet Politico from 2007-2011, joining as that site expanded and became frequently cited during the 2008 presidential election, and becoming one of its most prominent writers and bloggers.
In December 2011, he was named editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed. Smith explained that, although he would be leaving his Politico blog, he would still write for the publication on a weekly basis.
Politico
Joining Politico from the New York Daily News in 2007, Smith covered the Democratic presidential primary for POLITICO in 2008. He covered controversies including Barack Obama"s contacts with former Weatherman Bill Ayers as well as conspiracy theories about Obama"s citizenship and Barack Obama religion conspiracy theories.
Smith later posted an apology and retracted the story.
Since working at BuzzFeed, Smith has focused on strengthening the organization"s investigative journalism unit In 2012, Fast Company placed Smith on their "100 Most Creative" list. Smith interviewed Barack Obama in early 2015 for BuzzFeed"s first presidential interview.
Smith was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Brooklyn.
He and Zagare have three children. His mother is Dian G. Smith.
Smith is Jewish.