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.
In March 2008, Smith founded the website Splice Today, which features a variety of authors including Crispin Sartwell, William Bryk, and Mark Judge. The site covers an eclectic range of topics, with particular emphasis on politics and the arts. Smith writes articles for the site regularly. These pieces are usually politics-centric or personal essays.
