Russ Smith (publisher)

Russ Smith (b. 1955 in Huntington, New York) is a newspaper publisher and columnist best known for founding the Baltimore City Paper, Washington City Paper and New York Press.

After selling the Baltimore and Washington City Papers for $4 million, Smith founded New York Press in 1989. Like his previous papers, the press was an alternative weekly. It became a caustic rival with the well-established Village Voice.

In 2002 Avalon Equity Partners, publisher of a chain of gay alternative weeklies including the New York Blade and the Washington Blade, purchased the paper from Smith, although they continued to publish his 10,000+ word weekly column, MUGGER. From 2003 to 2006, Smith wrote a column called "Right Field" for the Baltimore City Paper.

A conservative Republican (although not socially; for example, he is an advocate of the legalization of prostitution, gambling, same-sex marriage, and all drugs), Smith is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, a position that he has held since 1999; he also writes for the paper's "Taste" section. Other publications Smith has written for include Baltimore's Press Box, The New York Sun, and Jewish World Review.

Smith worked at a Princeton University biology lab when he was 18, feeding rats, cleaning cages, and killing monkeys and cats used for lab experiments with chloroform.

In March 2008, Smith founded the website Splice Today. The site focuses on writing and multimedia, ranging in topic from music, film, politics, literature, sports, and food. Smith writes articles for the site regularly. These pieces are usually politics-centric or personal essays.