New global news site to launch in 2009
Jinfo Blog

18th April 2008

Item

There is a perception, often well founded, that news sources from the US are narrowly focused on their own continent. This looks to change next year when an international news site is launched in Boston. Global News Enterprises LLC http://www.globalnewsenterprises.com/ will be the first US-based website devoted exclusively to international news. The executive director and co-founder is Charlie Sennott, who has left the Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/ after 15 years. Global News’s CEO is Phil Balboni and was the founder of New England Cable News network http://www.necn.com/. A team of 70 foreign correspondents will be set up across the world and one of the sites special features will be a series of in-depth, multimedia reports. A number of ‘veteran’ reporters will join the team including Matthew McAllester, former foreign correspondent for Newsday http://www.newsday.com/, Joshua Hammer previously at Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/, Sam Kiley, The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/ former bureau chief for Africa and the Middle East, and Scott Anderson, a war correspondent and contributor to the New York Times magazine http://www.nytimes.com/. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/03/15/globes_sennott_set_to_join_global_news/ In a statement Mr. Balboni said of his new venture, “Global News will be the center of a worldwide community of internet users who want to know how political, economic, technological and social trends all over the world connect with their lives, their interests, their investments and their hopes for a better future. We are enormously excited about the potential we have to change for the better how Americans see and interact with the world.” http://www.saragoniandco.com/global_news.php. According to Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center of the Press, Politics and Public Policy and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/ the launch of Global News is of enormous importance. "It can show that traditional, original, high-quality reporting can be merged with the Web to create serious journalism and a thriving business. Global News will also help fill the gaping hole created by the mainstream media's near abandonment of international coverage." The Global News business model will offer free front page and subsidiary pages supported by advertising as well as premium content sections that will be available to users for a modest subscription fee. Global News enters the international news business at a time when other players are repositioning their activities. As we recently reported, Associated Press is re-thinking its network following the break with Dow Jones NewsWires, which has teamed up with Agence France Press instead. http://web.vivavip.com/forum/LiveWire/read.php?i=5195

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