GlobalPost Business Model
GlobalPost seeks to exploit powerful global demographic, political and economic trends by creating the only Internet journalism site devoted exclusively to international news and related content. We expect to attract an educated, affluent sector of the U.S. population that, research shows, are drawn to international news and are frustrated by the failure of mainstream media outlets to provide coverage.
Our goals are to:
- Provide the American people primarily but also other English readers around the world with access to independent, objective international reporting that is free from the operational constraints and other negative pressures imposed by large media companies;
- Offer intelligent, fair, and courageous on-site reporting and analysis from throughout the world and especially from those geographic areas that have been consistently ignored or underreported by the American news media;
- Provide a depth of coverage on important international issues -- social, political and economic -- that is generally or completely absent in the media and even on the web;
- Offer journalists the unique opportunity to have an ownership interest in the collaborative while also providing an important new distribution channel for their best work.
Consumer patterns of news and information have shifted radically over the past decade. Traditional media, particularly newspapers and broadcast television, have experienced dramatic declines in circulation and viewership while consumption of Internet news has soared.
GlobalPost will develop multiple streams of revenue, including web advertising and paid membership for those who desire to participate in the archives and discussions on international issues.
GlobalPost will offer both the convenience and the quality of a single outstanding source with the goal of filling all of a user's international news and information needs.
American television networks today largely cover the "hotspots" of international news, and even then, not comprehensively. U.S. newspapers have significantly cut back their foreign bureaus. Ironically, this comes at a moment in history when globalization is sweeping across all continents. Wherever you look, you find a burgeoning need and desire to know more about the world beyond U.S. borders: geopolitics and national security, commerce, investments and energy, telecommunications, increases in international leisure travel, and the broad power of the Internet to speed personal knowledge and communication across national boundaries.
Establishing bonds of trust with our users is a fundamental editorial and business objective. GlobalPost will prominently add to our site a Statement of Principles which commits to our users that all reporting, editing and publishing will adhere scrupulously to the highest standards of journalism, including honesty, accuracy, balance, comprehensiveness and objectivity. GlobalPost will not espouse a political point of view on the news but instead will report the truth to the best of our ability, recognizing that editorial integrity is the foundation both of our mission and our business success.
GlobalPost correspondents will concentrate on in-depth reporting of political and economic issues. Our initial lineup of correspondents will report from some 70 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and the Americas.
A hallmark of our approach to international news is geographic diversity and we will maintain an unprecedented commitment to reporting on nations that are consistently ignored by all other news media. In addition, our correspondents will live where they report while most U.S. media reportage is generated by correspondents based in just a handful of major European and Asian capitals.
We will take great care in the selection of our correspondents not only to ensure quality and integrity but also to find the right people for the unique opportunity we offer: an annual cash retainer plus an ownership interest in GlobalPost LLC.
GlobalPost will take advantage of the latest video technology to offer a broad array of video reports from our regular correspondents as well as from other international journalists with whom we will contract.
Part of our strategy of covering people is to pull together teams of top foreign correspondents, photographers and cameramen around an issue for which they share a passion. These teams will be funded to venture out to produce in-depth, multimedia content which will be featured and archived for our viewers.
The site also intends to create a community among our users who can interact online with global leaders and correspondents from the field.
We believe building a community that cares about the news of the world will create a website that is economically viable and provides a true forum for understanding.