Smith entered publishing through his father's (Sydney Ure Smith) magazines including Art in Australia and The Home. He managed Ure Smith P/L after 1949, undertook general publishing and launched Art and Australia in 1963. In the 1970s, he established Fine Arts Press Pty Ltd and retired in the early 1990s. His presses and Art and Australia were central to the development of Australian art in the last half of the 20th century.