“Ben Smith, the Times media columnist and former BuzzFeed editor-in-chief, disagrees with my premise: He doesn’t see himself as the media business’ Gossip Girl. All the same, he’s built a beat on divulging the tricky personal lives (and private reputations) of publishing heavyweights, celebrity journalists and cable news CEOs. In just nine months, Smith has become a destination voice, known for ‘
delicious‘ pieces on writers like Ronan Farrow, Andrew Sullivan and Maggie Haberman, along with even juicier, can’t-believe-they-admitted-it reporting on the upper crust, such as this piece on publishers fleeing to the Hamptons during the pandemic.”
—
