Talk:Justin B. Smith

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Residence and additional categories

Hello! Meera here, in my role as Head of Global Communications for Semafor, hoping to suggest some helpful updates to this Wikipedia article. As I've declared on my profile page and at Talk:Semafor (website), I want to acknowledge my conflict of interest and let editors know that I will be proposing updates to this Talk page instead of changing the biography on my own.

Right now the article has a "Personal" section. I see many Wikipedia biographies have a "Personal life" section, if a heading change is appropriate. I will let editors decide if the early life and education content should be moved to a separate "Early life and education" section.

For the "Personal life" section, I suggest adding mention of Justin Smith residing in New York City and Washington, D.C., as of 2022, per New York magazine (quote: "Justin splits his time between New York and Washington..."). Text could be as simple as the following:

• Smith lives in New York City and Washington, D.C., as of 2022.

References

Categories

I propose adding the following categories:

• Category:American chief executives
• Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut
• Category:People from New York City
• Category:People from Washington, D.C.
• Category:Phillips Academy alumni
• Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people
• Category:The Economist people

I believe the article's text already supports inclusion of these categories, but I can provide additional sources if needed. I also want to make User:Tserton aware of these requests because they are assisting with my requests at Talk:Semafor (website).

Thank you! SemaforMP (talk) 18:22, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Partially implemented I've added the categories you suggested, except Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut. I can't find a source that says he actually ever lived there, and place of birth isn't usually enough to add someone to a "people from" category (see WP:OCLOCATION). If you do know of a source that links Justin B. Smith more closely to Hartford, please post it here. On that note, I saw that the source used in the article for his being born in Hartford is dead. Do you know of a live source that backs that up? --Tserton (talk) 20:47, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

Infobox and external link

On behalf of Semafor, I'd like to submit another request to improve this biography. This request has three specific suggestions:

(1) I'd like to share an expanded infobox for review:

Justin B. Smith
Born	(1969-08-13) August 13, 1969 Hartford, Connecticut
Nationality	American
Education	Phillips Academy, Georgetown University
Occupation(s)	Co-founder and CEO of Semafor
Employer	Semafor
Board member of	Georgetown University, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

For this version, I've added mention of his nationality, occupation, employer, and boards, as well as Phillips Academy as an alma mater.

(2) I see some biographies have C-SPAN links. I've found the subject's entry and propose adding an "External links" section with the following:

• Appearances on C-SPAN

(3) Finally, I'd like to flag that the last section currently says "Smith is a member of the Georgetown University Board of Directors…". This should be updated to, "Smith served as a member of the Georgetown University Board of Directors…" (he is noted as an outgoing member here)

Thanks for reviewing. SemaforMP (talk) 21:46, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

Reply 10-JUL-2023

  Edit request implemented  

• As no terminus date was given with the subject's board work at Georgetown, a When? inline template was added to the sentence. Regards,  Spintendo  00:34, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

The Atlantic

Hello again! On behalf of Semafor, I'd like to submit an edit request to correct inaccurate text.

1. Currently the article says: In 2007, Smith was hired as president of Atlantic Consumer Media at The Atlantic. In 2010, the magazine made $1.8 million, the first time the magazine had been profitable in decades.

References

This text is inaccurate and repetitive. Also, The Atlantic made a $1.8 million profit (source).

I propose replacing with the following, which corrects the text:

• In 2007, Smith was hired as president of The Atlantic. Three years later, under his leadership, The Atlantic made $1.8 million profit, the first time the magazine had been profitable in decades.

References

2. The same paragraph says: In 2012, the company launched Quartz for business news. I think this sentence should be rewritten to actually focus on Justin Smith, using sources which specifically credit him for the launch of Quartz. I propose replacing with: In 2012, while leading Atlantic Media, Smith founded a new global business news brand Quartz.

References

I hope this helps with accuracy. Thanks for reviewing. SemaforMP (talk) 18:29, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

 Done Done, with partial exception of 1, where I retained the Atlantic Consumer Media distinction and reordered text in the article. WhinyTheYounger ※ Talk 22:08, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

@WhinyTheYounger I would note that the Dumenco source was paywalled and cannot be confirmed while the Indvik source only states that the Atlantic made 1.8 million. It did not specify that this 1.8 million was pure profit, as the COI editor's proposed re-write stated. Regards,  Spintendo  22:26, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Spintendo Thanks for pointing out the oversight. I have access to Ad Age independently and did not think of the paywall. I'm adding an NYT article that further corroborates the profit claim. WhinyTheYounger ※ Talk 23:04, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Sources for removed text

Hello! I see that two sentences were removed per Wikipedia:BLP awards, an essay which says "Many award programs or rankings are operated by organizations that are normally secondary sources, such as the press, but are primary sources when reporting on awards or rankings that they themselves organize." My understanding is other sources are needed.

In addition to the removed citations, here are others for verification:

• Adweek, "The Hollywood Reporter’s Annual ’35 Most Powerful People in New York Media’", Merrill Knox on Apr. 16, 2014
• People, "Uma Thurman Is Reportedly Dating Bloomberg Media CEO Justin B. Smith: 'I'm a News Lover'", Glenn Garner on June 19, 2021: "Smith, 51, was named one of the "35 Most Powerful People in New York Media" by The Hollywood Reporter in 2019."
• Ad Age, "MIKE BLOOMBERG APPEALS TO ADVERTISERS AT HIS COMPANY'S NEWFRONTS PITCH", Michael Sebastian on April 27, 2015: "He praised Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith, calling him one of the "smartest and most innovative people in media."

I propose restoring these two sentences:

• In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter named Smith one of the "35 Most Powerful People in New York Media."

• In 2015, Mike Bloomberg called Smith one of the "smartest and most innovative people in media."

References

I hope editors find these additional sources helpful. Thanks for the previous feedback and continued help here! SemaforMP (talk) 21:08, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

Reply 12-JUL-2023

  Clarification requested  

1. By their very nature, awards can be subjective, in that they represent a very specific point of view: that of the individual or organization which determines who wins the award and why. To counter this, a good practice is to limit the listing of awards to only those which are independently notable in Wikipedia.
2. To include the awards here, please ensure that only awards which are independently notable in Wikipedia are listed in the request.
3. When ready to proceed with the list of independently notable awards, kindly change the {{Edit COI}} template's answer parameter to read from |ans=y to |ans=n. Thank you!
   

Regards,  Spintendo  21:27, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

Notes

References

China

Hello, for this request I'd like to focus on the text related to China, which I believe is inappropriate for inclusion in this biography. Currently, the article says:

• "Under Smith's tenure, Bloomberg ordered one of its journalists to end his investigation into the wealth of senior Chinese Communist Party officials because of the company's business interests in China. The journalist was later fired, and his wife was threatened and pressured to sign a non-disclosure agreement by company lawyers."

This text is based on an NPR article which does not even mention Justin Smith and a Washington Free Beacon article which User:Tserton has already identified as partisan on the Semafor article's Talk page (where biased and misrepresentative text about China has also been addressed). I can't speak on behalf of the authors of the Washington Free Beacon piece, but the text about China could possibly be influenced by the problematic text which existed in the Wikipedia entry before it was removed. There is no other evidence to support including this text in Justin's biography.

Tserton, since you moved some China text over to this biography during your review at the Semafor Talk page, could you weigh in here or update the article appropriately?

Thank you. SemaforMP (talk) 14:28, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Y Done - I've googled several combinations of Smith's name, Bloomberg and China and found no reliable sources that connect Smith to the alleged attempts to bury the article in question, or on the author's firing. The incident is discussed at length at Bloomberg News#China coverage, without mentioning Smith. The Washington Free Beacon does link the two in the aforementioned article, but it's clearly not a neutral source. Of course, partisan doesn't have to mean unreliable, but contentious claims about people should be based on solid sources (and ideally more than one). --Tserton (talk) 21:26, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

Early life

Hi again! I noticed this biography does not mention that Justin was raised in Paris, or anything about his parents. I'd like to submit a request to add a bit more detail:

Source

The Spectator says: "Justin Smith was born in Connecticut in 1969, but he grew up in Paris... His American father, Damon Smith, is an Ivy League graduate who became president of the American College in Paris. His English mother, an artist from Manchester... Smith grew up in Paris, speaking French at school with friends from a variety of countries. He attended the prestigious École Internationale Bilingue."

Proposed addition

Following the existing text "Smith was born on August 13, 1969, in Hartford, Connecticut" within the "Personal" (again, should this be "Personal life"?) section, I suggesting adding:

• "His American father Damon Smith was president of American College in Paris and his English mother was an artist. Justin Smith was raised in Paris, where he attended École Internationale Bilingue.

References

I hope this is helpful. I'll leave it to others to decide if an "Early life" section is appropriate with this additional information. Thanks for reviewing and updating on my behalf. SemaforMP (talk) 14:28, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Role at Semafor

Currently, this biography's "Career" section mentions that Justin Smith stepped down as CEO to found Semafor, but offers no additional detail about his role at Semafor. I'd like to submit a request to add a follow-up sentence to clarify.

Source

In early 2022, Axios said: "Justin Smith, who will be CEO of the new operation, told Axios that the venture will focus on digital consumer subscriptions and premium advertising... For now, Justin Smith will be self-funding the business while he finalizes late-stage talks with 'individuals' who have 'high integrity and great business acumen' about long-term investments, instead of venture-type investors."

Proposed addition

Following the existing text "In January 2022, he stepped down as CEO to found Semafor with former New York Times journalist Ben Smith", I suggest adding:

• Justin Smith initially self-funded the project, and occupies the role of CEO.

References

My primary goal here is to note his role as CEO of Semafor, which is reflected in the infobox but not elsewhere in the article. Also, I noticed my initial edit request above re: residences and categories was skipped, if someone has a moment to review. Thanks again! SemaforMP (talk) 14:28, 17 July 2023 (UTC)