CBS News has announced that, in an exclusive agreement, the network will partner up with the news site GlobalPost to expand its foreign reach via the site’s 70 correspondents scattered among 50+ countries.
The partnership, which comes at a time when, across the industry, foreign news bureaus are a regular casualty of budget cuts, is a unique step toward solving the problem of covering international news in a tougher economic climate. CBS News EVP Paul Friedman said in a statement, “CBS News will have unmatched access to first-rate journalists with expert knowledge of the countries they live in and cover.”
The NY Times’ David Carr writes:
In the early going, at least, GlobalPost reporters will provide information, not work on the air, with CBS using its reporters and anchors to flesh out coverage for broadcast. CBS News suggested that the alliance with GlobalPost, in which the network will pay a monthly undisclosed fee to the site, represents an expansion of the news divisions’ efforts to cover the rest of the world.
According to Carr, the GlobalPost’s reporters have partial ownership in the site, which has advertising, paid membership, and a growing syndication service that will surely be helped by the high profile partnership.