Podcast: GlobalPost aims to give users a seat at the editorial meeting
Despite the bleak economy and journalism landscape, there are individuals and companies trying to innovate and deliver new journalism projects.
GlobalPost.com, the foreign news startup based in Boston, is one of the most ambitious. Foreign news has always been expensive, and it was one of the first things traditional metro newspapers cut. Regardless, editor Charles Sennott and his staff are trying to bring a new model and approach to a very important pillar of journalism.
“It’s been a lot of hard work — no one ever said it would be easy,” Sennott said. “But I also think that we’ve done what we set out to do which is to build a network of very talented reporters: journalists who have a lot of background and grounding in their subjects.”
GlobalPost has a team of 65 people in 45 countries. Correspondent complete a dispatch a week from an area of the world that they are very knowledgeable about. Many of its journalists were former foreign correspondents from companies like The Washington Post and Time Magazine.
We spoke to Sennott only a few months ago, yet GlobalPost.com looks noticeably different and has many new features. The biggest new features are centered around Passport, the premium subscription features of GlobalPost.com. Passport is one of three revenue streams for GlobalPost (advertising and syndication are the others).
The $199-a-year membership (many people such as students, NGOs, military, etc are eligible for discounts) is centered around access and knowledge:
Membership in Passport offers an entrée into GlobalPost’s inner circle. Passport leverages our network of 70 country-based and special beat correspondents to deliver exclusive content on key economic and political events. GlobalPost correspondents have extensive international experience, providing an unmatched view from the ground.
Passport also gives you a significant voice in the news. We invite you to join us in reinventing the media equation, empowering members for the Web 2.0 era. Instead of the old top-down model where editors decide what you need to read, as a Passport member you play an unprecedented role in shaping the stories that get covered, via ForeignDesk, Correspondent Calls and Newsmaker Interviews. Simply put, it’s access that gives you an edge. Moreover, we recognize how busy you are. We help you maximize your knowledge via products that save you time, such as Global 10, Correspondent Alerts, the Editor’s Global Brief and our convenient Monthly Newsletter.
Passport features can range from more in-depth audio interviews that compliment free articles on the site to allowing users to pitch stories to foreign correspondents to being in on conference calls. GlobalPost leaders are hoping to get at least 2,000 Passport subscribers by the end of the year.
“We can have a smaller cohort that we can really interact with,” he said about the promise of Passport.
The user interface has also been updated a bit is more enjoyable to use and look at. As GlobalPost builds out, we’ll probably see more interface tweaks.
Some other topics discussed:
- GlobalPost has begun using social media. What role will social media play in their future?
- How is GlobalPost’s syndication model going?
Click here to stream the interview. Or download the MP3.
Interview with Sennott about upcoming GlobalPost.com
While most major U.S. news organizations are fleeing the expensive realm of international coverage, the Global Post is poised to enter the space as an online-only organization.
Charles Sennott is a veteran of the Boston Globe’s foreign desk. He laments the fact that many major metros like the Globe no longer have foreign bureaus. He believes, however, that the demand is still there for coverage of international news.
Enter the Global Post. It is staffed by seven editors — including Sennott, the top dog — and seven business staffers in Boston. It, however, has a large network of global correspondents — 70 in 53 countries, to be exact. This new venture will launch on January 12, 2009.
It’s a different structure than most traditional media outlets. The Global Post wants to work with foreign correspondents who are already living abroad and working on other projects. This is a flatter, nimbler structure that should allow the Global Post to add more correspondents where demand is high (Global Post is looking for additional correspondents, by the way).
“We are able to create a very light structure that stretches out across the world,” he said.
That structure that stretches across the world is partly made possible by the fact that the Global Post doesn’t have a newspaper to print. The cost of printing and distribution is hampering innovation at a lot of newspapers.
“We start with a Web-based news organization in which we are stealth and light,” he said. “We don’t have trucks. We don’t have printing press. We don’t order ink by the barrel.”
One area that really piqued the interest of Beat Blogging, is how the Global Post is hoping to tap into local blogging networks. The Global Post will have a dedicated blog editor whose job it is to managing staff bloggers and find quality bloggers around the world.
The Global Post hopes to find the top five bloggers for each area they cover. So, for instance, you could consume Global Post content from Johannesburg, South Africa, while also being directed to the best local bloggers from that area too.
The Global Post also plans on using social media. Sennott wants to use social media to connect with people all over the world who could help the Global Post understand the world better.
“We really want to create a community of writers on one side of the screen, who are working together as people who care about international reporting,” he said. “And we definitely want to create a community on the other side of the screen of people who want to share their thoughts, their ideas and their stories.”
We’ll definitely be checking back in with the Global Post after it launches to see how their mesh of correspondents and bloggers can cover international news.
Some other questions answered:
- What is the business model of the Global Post? Sennott believes they’ll be profitable in year three.
- What will make this news organization different from The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor and other similar publications?
- Is there a future for large metros that continue to focus on print?
