Justin Smith and Ben Smith, co-proprietors of a brand new media start-up that has captured the eye of the web information world, revealed on Tuesday the title for his or her enterprise: Semafor.
The title is a variation on the phrase “semaphore,” a visible signaling equipment typically involving flags, lights and arm gestures, and sometimes utilized in a nautical context.
At an look final week, Justin Smith stated he and his companion had chosen a model title “that’s the identical phrase in 25 or 35 totally different languages,” a mirrored image of the corporate’s international ambitions. “It is vitally deliberately going to have the ability to dwell in Asia or Europe or the Center East or America,” Mr. Smith stated.
The selection of Semafor was revealed on Tuesday by Axios, a information website that additionally started life as a high-profile start-up with an uncommon title derived from a Greek phrase.
“It was actually vital for us to have a reputation that had the identical which means no matter your native tongue,” Justin Smith, the previous chief government of Bloomberg Media, advised the positioning.
This isn’t the primary time Justin Smith has expressed curiosity in a model title derived from historical Greek.
On not less than one earlier media venture, Mr. Smith strongly thought of utilizing the phrase “Atlas,” in keeping with an individual acquainted with his brainstorming. His thought for The Atlas didn’t in the end go ahead.
Justin Smith and Ben Smith, who’s a former media columnist for The New York Occasions, intend to recruit English-speaking journalists in lots of international locations to compete with worldwide information organizations like Reuters and The Related Press. The Smiths, who are usually not associated, stated they anticipated the positioning to debut within the second half of the yr.
A federal trademark registration for “Semafor,” filed on Jan. 16, refers to “an interactive web site that includes information and knowledge within the fields of common curiosity information.” Together with “offering information and knowledge,” the registration cites quite a few enterprise functions, together with “expertise company and reserving companies,” “literary company companies, specifically, illustration of journalistic expertise,” and “arranging private appearances by individuals working within the area of stories journalism and public affairs.”
Solely a handful of English phrases are the identical or comparable in lots of international languages, together with taxi, chai, pajama and soup.
Kitty Bennett contributed analysis.