Semafor's Washington Strategy: Building a Profitable Media Empire

The business plan behind Semafor's success is less surprising than its speed. Like other recent successful news startups—including Axios, Punchbowl, and Puck—Semafor has built itself by aiming squarely at Washington, DC. The strategy positions the company as a way for advertisers to reach powerful CEOs and government officials who do business there.

CEO Justin Smith explains that this approach creates a B2B marketplace that operates through consumer-facing channels. "What's sometimes confusing to people is that many of these news properties, including Semafor, are consumer-facing now—consumer web pages and consumer-focused newsletters," Smith notes. "But since the audience that they're appealing to is this segment of this leadership audience, it allows for a much more targeted type of business monetization."

The monetization focuses on the corporate affairs market, which is largely about corporate reputation, with some advocacy advertising. Smith points to examples like Facebook stating, "We believe healthy regulation is a great idea." This targeted approach allows Semafor to command premium rates from companies needing to communicate their brand positions to influential decision-makers.

Semafor's most ambitious goal is building a Washington-based event that rivals the annual Davos gathering in Switzerland. This vision was embedded in the company's original business plan from day one.

"We saw an opportunity to build a leading CEO convening in the United States," Smith explains. "We looked at the US market, and we thought, 'It's interesting. This is the largest economy in the world, and there is not a dominant leading CEO convening platform.'"

We identified Washington, DC, as the best location to do this, which was also a little bit of an unusual choice.

Smith acknowledges that DC's historical role as a business center was unconventional. "DC's historically not been a place where CEOs travel. It's not been historically a center of business, but that of course has been changing across the last five to seven years." The convergence of geopolitics in the boardroom and the rise of regulation has transformed the city into a destination where global CEOs now find themselves three, four, five, or even ten times a year.

Events now generate 50% of Semafor's revenue, a significant portion of the company's $40 million in total revenue. In 2025 alone, the company hosted close to 100 events. However, Smith has a clear strategy for scaling this business without simply increasing the number of gatherings.

"As we go forward, the idea is not necessarily to go from a hundred to 200 to 300 events," Smith states. "The strategy is much more likely to be to build a series of tentpoles that themselves become larger, more significant, more valuable commercially, more influential editorially."

This approach focuses on creating flagship events that grow in scale and influence rather than proliferating smaller gatherings. The company has already demonstrated this with its investment in video content, though it made the strategic decision to pivot quickly when something wasn't working.

Smith notes that as a startup, one of their better decisions was recognizing what wasn't effective. "We tried, and were unable to really figure it out, and we ended up killing it within six months or so. Because as a startup, I think that's probably one of the better decisions we made—just to focus on the stuff that's working, and stop doing the stuff that's not working."

The Washington media market has deep roots, with predecessors like Roll Call, The Hill, and National Journal representing some of the most successful and profitable media businesses of their era. Digital disruptors like Politico and Axios eventually captured that market, but the underlying opportunity has only expanded.

"I think what also happened is that the market grew really, really dramatically because the intersection of government and business has become more pronounced and more intense," Smith observes. The stakes have gotten higher for companies operating in the US, making their need to communicate corporate brand positions more urgent.

This growth trajectory explains why Semafor raised an additional $30 million despite already being profitable. Smith, with 30 years in the media business, understands the industry's unpredictability. "Just because you've had a good couple of years, and you've developed what we think is a really interesting model—if there's a chance to raise money, with good long-term investors, to accelerate the things that are working, it's a good idea."

The new capital will be used to extend Semafor's model across the world and into new markets, building on the foundation of what Smith calls "an interesting innovation in the media space."

Semafor's success represents a new formula for media profitability in the digital age. By focusing on Washington's unique intersection of business and politics, the company has created a sustainable business model that others are now emulating.

The strategy combines three key elements: targeted audience focus on leadership demographics, event-driven revenue streams, and premium advertising access to powerful decision-makers. This approach has allowed Semafor to achieve profitability in just three years—a timeline that defies industry expectations.

As the company looks to scale its tentpole events and expand globally, it has established a blueprint for how news organizations can thrive by serving specific, high-value audiences rather than chasing mass-market scale. The Washington experiment has proven that there is still room for profitable innovation in media, provided companies are willing to bet on the enduring value of connecting influential people with each other.