Global Post’s coverage of Iran: WTF?
Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife
Someone please explain to me what Editor C.M. Sennott and CEO Phil Balboni are thinking over at their six month old foreign news baby, GlobalPost.com. Launched to great fanfare, the website was supposed to bring back to relevance the crusty yet intrepid foreign reporter, but give him or her the new media tools make their work relevant in today’s world. So one might be forgiven if they were expecting good hard news from Global Post about the Iranian election, and not a Q&A with an Iranian American rock band. Or an article explaining how to run a protest without Twitter that reads like a Front of Book magazine roundup on diet fads, except, you know, people are dying. Guys, Twitter is the protest. And Iran is in a near revolutionary state. You really think readers who want Iran news are excited about articles that open in Hungary, 1956?? Who is your audience?
Andrew Sullivan understands. Nico Pitney, who worked for DC think tanks before Huffington Post, understands. So why is Phil Balboni’s vaunted team whiffing on this story, which is clearly the defining foreign story of the year so far, and could have ramifications for years if not decades in the future? According to the Times:
Mr. Balboni, who created the New England Cable News network, said he was a passionate defender of for-profit journalism. “I believe deep in my heart and soul that the discipline of the marketplace makes for a stronger organization,” he said.
I have to assume marketplace is whacking Balboni pretty hard right now. He charges $199 a year for insider access to the site, presumably coming from those readers who really care about and need foreign news. But the front door of the website today is about Middle Eastern countries that are trying to go nuclear. The dek reads, “While the focus is on Iran, other countries have launched or revived their capabilities.” Um, “while the focus is on Iran,” THE FOCUS IS ON IRAN. The carousel of stories underneath that? Jordan, China, SPORTS, Commerce (US/China) and Ghana. Ghana! Meanwhile their reporter’s bloggy notebook, called Chatter, has this to say about Iran:
And in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is vowing not to back down from his election stance. “I had insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters. “Neither the establishment nor the nation will yield to pressure at any cost.”
This is actually an improvement on yesterday:
Need to know: Word from our contact on the streets of Tehran is that people are grumbling about martial law being imposed. They’re not happy about it.
Grumble? Who’s their Iranian contact, Walter Matthau? Seems to me there’s a little more than grumbling going on over thre. There are massive protests over a rigged elections that are being mercilessly put down by the military all over my country. There are women dying on YouTube. No matter what side they’re on, people are in the streets, not grouching around the kitchen in their slippers.
A roundup of thoughts from GlobalPost’s other foreign correspondants again suffers from, roundup-itis. Short, pithy updates that say nothing and contain little if any reporting. A blogger could do better. Likewise a “psychoanalysis,” of Khameini reveals nothing except the prejudices and lack of knowledge about Islam and Iran the “analyst,” a political economist named Marvin Zonis, seems to have. “Iranians love conspiracy theories,” he says. But that’s not all. “Islam in general is a very joyless religion: Life is miserable, prepare to die and go to heaven,” Zonis tells us.
Maybe it’s just me. They are just six months out of the gate after all. Perhaps my desire to see them succeed is clouding my judgment. As a journalist, I have a vested interest in seeing sustainable web-based enterprise reporting, models that work, especially in the area of foreign coverage, which is perhaps the least marketable, most revenue intensive part of the newspaper. Sennott seems to think they’re doing a heckuva job, covering the Iranian rockers and whatnot. Balboni and Sennott, tell me why I’m wrong. I’ll print it here.
And readers can do the same: Here’s a pretty complete listing of GlobalPost’s Iran coverage, which wasn’t really east to find. Why don’t you decide if you like what they’re up to? Dont’ forget to read the grandeloquent mission statement, proclaiming devotion to opinion-free, hard news, strong voiced reporting, with breadth, depth, and originality, from correspondents who live in the countries they are covering. Perhaps you can also tell me the actual website that statement was written about.
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Dear Paul:
I read your comments about GlobalPost’s Iran coverage and felt compelled to respond.
First of all, we are genuinely appreciative of the fact that you have a “desire to see us succeed” and that you are visiting the site often. In that you are not alone. June will be the sixth straight record month for GlobalPost in terms of traffic. We have seen tremendous growth in unique users – more than one million since our launch in January. We have far exceeded our original projections for traffic growth and June’s results are months ahead of schedule on our ambitious goal of reaching 600,000 monthly unique users by the end of the year. Our business is also strong and growing. I applaud you for your “vested interest in seeing sustainable web-based enterprise reporting, models that work, especially in the area of foreign coverage.” I am proud to report that GlobalPost is, indeed, working and has resonated powerfully with people both in America and around the world. In fact, we have had visits from all but a handful of the world’s nations and territories, a stunning 223 over the past six months and consistently each and every month more than 200 countries send visitors to our site.
Now, as to your criticism of our Iran coverage, I’m afraid we could not disagree more. We had two courageous correspondents – Cameron Abadi and Iason Athanasiadis – reporting on the election well before it occurred in numerous insightful dispatches and they continued to report at great risk to their own personal well-being right through the election outcome and the bloody street protests that followed. Those reports are available on our site and it is both unfortunate and tremendously unfair that you did not mention a single one. Both Cameron and Iason risked their lives to report this story and Iason is still paying a price for his courage. He was arrested by the Iranian authorities on Wednesday two weeks ago and he remains in custody to this day. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters without Borders, GlobalPost and other news organizations are working to secure his release.
Although it is surely not productive to engage in a dispute over your perceptions of how well GlobalPost has performed, nor are we in any way defensive about our successes or failures, your commentary was so unfair as to compel a response and to correct the record for anyone who has read your post. We are intensely proud of what we have built with GlobalPost, of our superb team of journalists in nearly 50 countries around the world, and with how faithfully we have been able to carry out our founding mission. And we have done this in the midst of one of the greatest economic reversals in modern history.
GlobalPost welcomes all opinions about our work, both in praise and in criticism, and we sincerely value the constructive critiques of our users and readers. I hope that you will continue to visit GlobalPost. I think you will come to believe that your original faith in us was not misplaced.
With best wishes,
Philip S. Balboni
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Dear Philip,
Let me first offer my sincere hope and thoughts for the safe release of Iason Athanasiadis. His and Cameron Abadi’s courage is beyond admirable. Nothing I have to say or have said should be construed to call that into question.
To your point regarding my lapses in mentioning Iason’s, Cameron’s, and other Global Post coverage you are proud of, let me say that there is still no single topic page marked, “Iran” that I can find on your site. Nor is there a recognizable single aggregator on your site, like HuffPo’s Nico Pitney or The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan. Both have generated massive traffic for their sites and become a focal point for immediate updates and the latest news.
These criticisms are not trivial ones. Display and navigation limitations seem to be hiding some of your best work from your readers, including me.
I am glad to see your addition of an Iran column to the front page where there was none at the time of my initial post. Part of my reaction to the site was the feeling that Global Post was giving me nowhere to visually land when I came looking for coverage regarding Iran.
Yet, it still seems to me that much of the editorial content on the front page and within the site is being dictated by factors other than the pressing news of the day. Too many stories that seem to have soft news tie ins are distracting me from the enterprise reporting I am led to believe will be present throughout the website. The mix feels off for a story as big as Iran.
That said, you’re probably right when you say debating the merits of your specific editorial decisions won’t be productive for either of us. The qualms I have, I have. So, let me instead reemphasize my hope that Global Post succeed in its mission, because we do need sites like the one you propose to bring to us.
Thanks for writing in.
Best,
Paul Smalera