I want to introduce you to a very exciting project I am working on as the Director of Global Blog Development for a cool new organization called GlobalPost.com.
It will be the first online-only world news service, and will launch in January with 70 correspondents in 53 countries “to satisfy a growing need for independent, reliable, insightful and up-to-the-minute coverage and analysis of news in every region of the world.”
A pioneer in the development of 24-hour local cable news, former New England Cable News President and founder Phil Balboni came up with the idea with another New England legend, Charlie Sennott, the former veteran Boston Globe foreign correspondent. They have an awesome video about their mission on their home page. Go take a look: <a href=http://www.globalnewsenterprises.com/>
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I approached them over the summer about adding hundreds of local bloggers from around the world to GlobalPost’s corps of correspondents. While the correspondents are great, they can only be in one place at one time. Bloggers are everywhere. And they are very, very local.
Phil and Charlie liked the idea, and since September, I have been working with 12 incredibly talented interns from Emerson College, BU, Suffolk University and elsewhere to find 350 of “The World’s Best Bloggers” (writing in English) in those 53 countries.
Click on the link below to see a PDF of a slide show about how we’re doing the search. The best part of the show is the second half where you’ll get to “meet” 31 of the best of the best bloggers
FINDING 350 OF THE WORLD’S BEST BLOGGERS
Here are some samples of the blogger profile slides, and they are only the beginning!
10 responses so far ↓
Bart // November 8, 2008 at 10:00 pm |
Some fascinating blogs in there.
Frank // November 15, 2008 at 12:56 pm |
Hi John, nice page.
Shafqat // December 29, 2008 at 9:34 am |
This is fascinating stuff… We can tell that you guys put in a lot of thought and effort into finding these bloggers. Will they be paid by GlobalPost? Curious to know what kind of arrangement do you have that will allow you to syndicate their content, while giving them independence/their own voice.
Thanks,
Shafqat
Founder, NewsCred
johnwilpers // December 30, 2008 at 9:51 am |
Hi, Shafqat,
Thank you. We do put a lot of time into finding and vetting the blogs we are going to be highlighting on GlobalPost.com come Jan. 12!
It’s been a wonderful, eye-opening, heart-warming, heart-breaking, world-shrinking experience. The most impressive thing has been the amazing number of incredibly talented writers and photographers out there who are creating great stuff that is being seen by so few people.
We aim to fix that.
As to your question, at present, the bloggers we highlight will not be paid. We figure that most bloggers at this point in the evolution of their blogs are primarily interested in building an audience and regular readers. With our global footprint and high-powered partners (including now the Huffington Post which wants five of our bloggers every day), we think it’s a good trade.
And we will only be hosting the blogger’s most current post. We will be pointing back to the blogger’s own site for comments and archives.
We will also be highlighting some of the blogs on our home page and on the region pages (Asia, Americas, etc.), plus promotion on the blogger’s country page.
There is no formal arrangement with the bloggers. We don’t ask them to do anything differently. We just take their RSS feed and host their most current post. They are free to continue doing whatever they’ve been doing all along. Their independence and voice are unaffected by GlobalPost.
I’d love to get your reaction after we launch. And if you know of any blogs we should consider, I’d love to get those names as well.
Thanks again for your comments.
John
Senor Pablo // January 8, 2009 at 8:40 am |
John.. I found this link from my friends at Global Voices Online. I would recommend you visit http://www.anakbrunei.com
I think his write-up and photography merits serious consideration. Thanks
Panic {RE}_Programming » Blog Archive » GlobalPost Aims to Resuscitate Foreign Correspondents Online // January 8, 2009 at 7:39 pm |
[...] media startup that will live its life online. Balboni brought in blog consultant John Wilpers to pick out 300-plus outside blogs from around the world to feature on the site. And Balboni defended his team’s online [...]
Karen // October 9, 2009 at 9:52 am |
John:
You are right – I simply can’t wait to see this happen on Global Post – and get those feeds myself…thanks for this awesome work.
I would like to connect and share with you and your interns. Am from a team of Simmons School of Management students that love GP – and are working on some marketing thoughts – care to connect? Please let me know.
johnwilpers // October 9, 2009 at 8:42 pm |
Hi, Karen,
I’d love to meet with your team at Simmons. Some of my interns who are assigned to GlobalPost would love to join us. Send me an e-mail at: jwilpers@globalpost.com. I look forward to it.
John
Zyan // November 15, 2009 at 1:29 pm |
I know this is an old post but I just ran across it. Interesting idea of the local bloggers and I like it. And by the way, is there a particular reason that in the slide picture on Israel and Palestine “Israel” is misspelled as “Isreal?”
johnwilpers // November 16, 2009 at 12:10 am |
Hi, Zyan. Thank you for the comment. And there is no reason for the misspelling other than stupidity. My bad. I’ve removed it. — John