Who we have so far.
This page is intentionally incomplete, and that is the point: we name the people who are here, and we are honest about the roles that are not yet filled. standards today is its founder and a small board; the editorial team — the people who will report, check, and edit the work — is what we are recruiting now. We do not pre-list candidates.
Brandon Wey
An entrepreneur and a two-time graduate of MIT — in electrical engineering and from its Sloan School of Management — Brandon founded standards to rebuild the one institution a democracy cannot do without and no longer seems to have: a newspaper of record, free to read and independent by design.
Leslie Frisbee
Founding editor of STNDRDS, Leslie is an award-winning journalist and poet with over 20 years in lifestyle media. Leslie has been Director of Niche Content at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Editor-in-Chief of Luxury Magazine, and spent more than a decade as Robin Leach's editor. Leslie holds an MA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University, and her debut memoir, The Other Side of June, is forthcoming in fall 2026.
Mark Smith
An attorney and a graduate of Harvard Law School, Mark is standards' interim CEO and serves on its Board of Directors.
Editor-in-Chief
Holds final editorial authority and stewards both the Editorial Charter and the AI Editorial Intelligence system. Appointed — and removable — only by the CEO and the independent Editorial Board acting together, never by either one alone.
Apply to this role →Writers
Primary-source reporting on a defined beat — our founding writers, growing to a small desk as the newsroom builds. Beat shaped around candidate strength; AI and technology accountability is a natural opening.
Apply to this role →Fact-Checkers
Neutrality by methodology begins here. The fact-audit and bias-audit gates operationalizing neutrality at the story level.
Apply to this role →