# Ben Smith on building a $40m turnover news business in three years

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/ben-smith-on-building-a-40m-turnover-news-business-in-three-years
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/ben-smith-on-building-a-40m-turnover-news-business-in-three-years.md
Podcast: [The Future of Media, Explained - from Press Gazette](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141)
Published: 2026-01-29T15:47:34+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-future-of-media-from-press-gazette/episodes/ben-smith-on-building-a-40m-turnover-news-business-in-three
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/623317507e51370012bc96c3/e/697b8117b29f9abc9c999dc6/media.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/episodes/ben-smith-on-building-a-40m-turnover-news-business-in-three-years
Duration seconds: 2946

## Resource

Media start-up Semafor reached profitability in 2025 with revenue of $40m, in the third full year after its October 2022 launch. Co-founder and editor-in-chief Ben Smith joined Press Gazette’s UK editor Charlotte Tobitt in London to discuss how the business became an overnight success in a difficult climate for media overall. Smith discussed Semafor’s expansion plans, why its initial bet on video didn’t work out, why it still doesn’t have a paywall, and shared his advice for other media business founders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/episodes/ben-smith-on-building-a-40m-turnover-news-business-in-three-years/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-future-of-media-explained-from-press-gazette-5452141/ben-smith-on-building-a-40m-turnover-news-business-in-three-years.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.