Ernie Smith
Verified- Editor, Tedium Newsletter
- Freelance Journalist, Freelance
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Ernie Smith’s Biography
Read Full Bio →Weird Stuff? I'm Your Guy
Hey, I'm Ernie. I've lived a lot of internet lives over the years, including as editor of a cool news-focused Tumblr called ShortFormBlog. These days, however, I'm known for a twice-weekly newsletter I write called Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet, where I do a deep dive into the weird, arcane, and mundane things one can find on the internet.
My work career has been pretty varied. I spent more than a decade at a content marketing and UX firm, where I helped to dev…
Ernie Smith’s Journalist Portfolio
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Interview
See all 12 answers →What was your first job as a journalist?
Have you ever used a typewriter?
How is social media changing news?
Awards
See all 7 awards →2016: The Year in Digg
2016 - Top Author
For my work with Tedium, Atlas Obscura, and Motherboard in 2016, my articles frequently appeared on Digg—nearly two dozen times, in fact. For this, I was among the authors highlighted in the site's year-end coverage.
Shorty Award
2012 - Microblog of the Year on Tumblr — Nominee
As described by the Shorty Awards staff: "Perfect for news collection or just a laugh, Short Form Blog is expanding the definitions of what it means to be a microblog." We didn't win, but we were up against a worthy victor, "We Are the 99 Percent."
Newsweek: Best Tumblr for Breaking News
2013 - Tumblr
Awarded after Tumblr's acquisition by Yahoo, here's what it said about SFB: "What’s black and white and red all over? ShortFormBlog, of course. The Tumblr delivers breaking news in bite-size form, complete with eye-catching breakouts and easily digestible numbers. The folks behind ShortFormBlog really understand how to adjust Tumblr’s features to deliver the most visually engaging way to tell the day’s big story."
Time Magazine: 30 Must-Read Tumblrs
2012 - Readers' Pick
This online blurb came on top of a mention in the magazine in November 2011. From the article: "A must-read for news junkies who require brevity, ShortFormBlog has become an Internet pillar of aggregation. Created by graphic designer Ernie Smith in 2008, it’s morphed into one of Tumblr’s most popular news blogs through its short and sweet news rubrics."
BuzzFeed: The 90 Best Tumblr Blogs Of 2011
2011 - Best of the Year
Included on a list with dozens of other outlets. In the words of the immortal Matt Stopera: "Short Form Blog is one of the best news sources on Tumblr/the entire internet."
Society For News Design
2008 - Award of Excellence
In my newspaper design days, I won a couple of awards of pages I did at two different papers. I won in 2006 and 2008 for pages I directly helped design, and in 2012 as part of a team at the Washington Post Express.
2017: The Year in Digg
2017 - Top Author
Per Digg, I was the second-most-featured writer on the site in 2017, between my writing on Tedium, Motherboard, Atlas Obscura, and The Outline. It was the second year in a row I was featured in the top ten of this list.