He's stepping down after more than a decade leading The Texas Tribune. In a post announcing his departure, Smith wrote: "What I told our board members is undeniably true: Sentimentality and nostalgia are enemies of progress, and I’m nothing if not sentimental and nostalgic. ... I can’t quite break free, and the march of change — the pace, the trajectory — doesn’t entirely sit well with me. Yet change we must. Evolve we must. Grow we must."