Dear reader,
At a moment defined by information overload, eroding trust, and accelerating complexity, Semafor set out to do something radical: make the world make sense again.
Over the last three years, we’ve built a new kind of global newsroom to run right at those challenges. The journalism our growing team of expert journalists produce is curious and fair, transparent and global – delivering intelligence for the new world economy.
You’ll find it in our briefings on business, technology, energy, and media; in our regional editions in Washington, the Gulf, and Africa; and in CEO Signal – the intelligence stream built for CEOs. And if you read a briefing or two, check out the whole picture.
It’s been quite an amazing, moving experience for us as founders to meet global leaders who tell us Semafor is their most valuable news source, say that Flagship (as often as not) is their first read, and tell us their time at this week’s World Economy Summit was both inspiring and productive. In you, we’ve found an audience that can’t afford simplified narratives, and hates being polarized for clicks. Your participation in Semafor – from reading our briefings, to attending our events, to telling us how to improve – has turned us into the fastest-growing, most ambitious new journalism platform in the world — something we had the chance to talk about on CNBC’s Squawk Box yesterday morning.
This year, that mission expands even further. We hope you’ll join us in person or online at Semafor World Economy Summit in April 2026 – now the largest convening of global CEOs in America with a mission to empower them to navigate extraordinary complexity by curating the richest insights, ideas, and diverse perspectives on the global economy. It will double in size and impact in 2026 – we expect some 400 global CEOs, and so we bit the bullet and rented out the entire Conrad Hotel.
We’re also introducing Semafor China this coming January, led by Pulitzer Prize–winner Andy Browne, to bring clarity to the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship (sign up here). And across Africa and the Gulf, our Next Three Billion series continues to convene innovators and policymakers defining growth for the next generation.
None of this would be possible without you – our readers, partners, and community of global decision-makers who expect more from journalism. We appreciate your holding us to our promises, and as always, we’d love your thoughts and advice on how to serve you best.
Ben Smith, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Justin B. Smith, Co-Founder and CEO
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