Very much my jam. In another world, Traffic is the source material for some prestige TV series of film, as The Accidental Millionaires was for The Social Network. An excellent account of the burgeoning industry of blogging, its growth from bedroom hobbyists to influence at the highest levels of media and politics, through the lens of the warring Gawker Media and Buzzfeed. I used to be, in 2007 or so, obsesses with Gawker Media as a media company, seeming to have this very astute identity and voice online, the range of blogs staffed by people who cared alternately about the quality of the site or the metrics on any given day. In an ideal world, there’d be a book that was just that, but the HuffPo/Buzzfeed side of things offers important contrast. Smith has a knack for narrative and inside information, being at the heart of it (a fact, admittedly, only noted about half-way through the book when he becomes a character). It’s a well-structured book as well, with chapters being dedicated to outside interests; an especially interesting one steps back from Gawker vs. Buzzfeed to zoom in on how the New York Times approached the shifting landscape, or the one on The Dress acting in shorthand as an allegory for the whole thing. Immensely readable, highly recommended to understand how we got to where we are today. It’s sad to see Gawker’s fate, but equally I don’t know, from reading this, how it could ever have been any other way.