Chair of the GFMD Management Committee, Hoffman convened and established the initial cross sector initiative of 15 media development organizations worldwide, representing 400 media assistance organizations in 97 countries.

He is also President of Internews Network, a global non-profit organization headquartered in California that empowers local media worldwide to serve the information needs of their communities. Through its programs, Internews strives to improve the reach, quality, and sustainability of local media. With offices in 23 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America, Internews has worked in 70 countries, and trained over 70,000 people in media skills.

Hoffman has written widely about media and democracy, the Internet, and the importance of supporting pluralistic, local media around the world. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Foreign Affairs, and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has also testified before U.S. House and Senate committees on the issue of press freedom.

Hoffman was project director of the Emmy-award winning television series Capital to Capital in 1987-1990, produced in association with ABC News and Soviet State Television, and was project director for Internews' broadcasts of the proceedings of the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, for which Internews was awarded the European Commission's ECHO Award for Broadcast Commitment in 1996.

From 1980-1982 Hoffman was the editor of Evolutionary Blues, a journal of political thought on international conflict, the threat of nuclear war, and US-Soviet relations. He previously served as National Director of Survival Summer, a coalition of peace and environmental groups that helped launch the anti-nuclear war movement of the early 1980s.

Hoffman has a BA in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University and has completed doctoral work at the University of Colorado in the Social and Intellectual History of the United States.