2022 World Affairs Council of the Year
Network of Independent World Affairs Councils of America
WELCOME TO “DAILY CHATTER”
A complimentary subscription to the weekday news summary “Daily Chatter” will soon be provided to active members of the World Affairs Council. The publication gives readers a “two-minute read” on the news shaping the world each day, delivered to email inboxes at 5:30 a.m. (CT), in three sections: “Need to Know,” “Want to Know” and “Discoveries.”
This new, free member benefit is being offered through the Council’s association with the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA). Bill Clifford, WACA President, announced an offer to provide the news service to members of Councils on a one-year trial basis. At the end of the first year the Tennessee World Affairs Council will review the interest of members in continuing the subscription. Philip Balboni, publisher of “Daily Chatter” and founder of “Global Post” told the conference that the newsletter was designed to keep readers up to date on key issues through a curated review of top issues in a polished format designed for busy consumers of global affairs information.
To receive “Daily Chatter” there’s nothing you need to do. If you are an active member of the Tennessee World Affairs Council you will soon see it appear in your email inbox. It will arrive every Monday-Friday. If it’s not something you want to continue to continue to receive simply click on the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email. “Daily Chatter” comes to you on an email list separate from your World Affairs Council emails. “Daily Chatter” will not use your email address for any purpose than to provide you your World Affairs Council version of the daily news.
Not Currently A Member? You can join today to have your name added to the “Daily Chatter” newsletter list and to enjoy many other World Affairs Council member benefits.
Here is how “Daily Chatter” describes itself.
DailyChatter is your own personal intelligence analyst. We search for meaning and context in this immensely complex world and filter what we’re hearing through Chatter’s popular prisms of “Need to Know,” “Want to Know,” and “Discoveries”. Our sole mission is to help busy people like you know their world better.
We don’t slow you down with an onslaught of lists and links like most email newsletters. Instead, we research the most important global news sources every day and send you a smart, succinct summary that is easily read on your smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer.
Our goal each morning is to tell you the most current and critical news you need to know to be both smarter and better informed. DailyChatter’s exclusive focus is world news along with the most important US events in politics, the economy, global conflict, the environment, arts and culture.
Here are a few other things you’ll want to know about DailyChatter:
The newsletter will arrive in your mailbox by 6:30am US Eastern Time Monday through Friday, 52 weeks a year.
In our writing and analysis, we do not lean left or right. We try to see the world as it is but with compassion and with an awareness of the importance of history in shaping current events.
DailyChatter is published in America but our perspective is international. We believe the truth behind global issues can be found anywhere in the world if you search with an open mind.
We are independent of any other media organization and are privately owned.
And DailyChatter is an advertising-free zone. That’s right, we accept no advertising.
Instead we ask that you pay a modest annual subscription — just $12. That’s only $1 a month for exceptional insight into the most important things happening around the world.
The first two weeks are free, so if you’re not happy, you can cancel your subscription at any time during those initial 14 days. But we’re confident that DailyChatter will become an indispensable part of your morning.
BACKGROUND AND MISSION
Chatter was born at the international news site GlobalPost where Philip Balboni, Daily Chatter’s CEO and Co-Executive Editor, was Founder and CEO from 2008 until the end of October 2015. Chatter was a daily newsletter with a distinctive voice and a strong narrative summary of the most important and interesting stories GlobalPost was following around the world. It quickly became one of our most popular features.
Mr. Balboni kept the rights to Chatter when GlobalPost was sold to the WGBH Educational Foundation in late October 2015.
In a world filled with crisis, complexity, and conflict, and with global economic forces binding nations as never before, to be an informed human being is both harder and more important than it has ever been. Yet we are frenetically busy, working longer and harder than ever and swamped by information, much of it noise.
Chatter’s sole mission is to help you meet the challenge of knowing what is important to know, and quickly. We’re excited by the enormous opportunity of helping you know the world better, and to do it fast.
Our commitment is to be your informed, impartial and concise guide to the world every weekday and to do so without ever losing sight of our humanity or our sense of humor.
We look forward to having you with us.
ABOUT THE SUBSCRIPTION
We’ve made DailyChatter incredibly affordable — just $12 a year — because we care deeply about expanding your knowledge of the important developments happening each day around the world. At a cost of just $1 a month, or less than 5 cents a day, there’s no smarter investment you can make.
Better still, the first two weeks of the newsletter are free. If you aren’t impressed with DailyChatter, you can cancel your subscription at any time during the first two weeks and your credit card will not be charged. We’re confident that you’ll find yourself looking forward to each day’s edition with its special insight and perspective on vital international news events.
Some might ask why we’re asking you to pay even this small amount for DailyChatter rather than giving it away for free. But you likely already know the answer: “free” has been a disaster for journalism since the practice became widespread with the rise of online news. Initially, it was hoped that the new forms of digital advertising would support the news mission, but that’s proven to be mostly wrong. Over time it’s become clear that advertising cannot, by itself, sustain quality journalism. On top of that, consumers of online news are increasingly turned off by digital ads. They’re intrusive, often irrelevant, and they interfere with the reading experience.
That’s why we’ve decided that DailyChatter will not accept advertising. That’s right, no advertising will interfere with your enjoyment of the content on our daily newsletter.
It’s ironic that here in the early 21st century, it is the original 18th century business model for journalism that seems to work best. Once again, readers paying a subscription fee or newsstand price for the news they consume is “the” essential value proposition and DailyChatter is adopting it from the outset.
We’re asking our readers to pay an annual subscription of just $12 as a small downpayment on the future of this publication and the quality of content we provide each day. In turn, we promise that DailyChatter will be written and edited to the highest standards.
We have only one mission and that is to make you better informed about the world and to do so in an amount of time that is commensurate with our incredibly busy lives. We have no allegiance other than to you, our readers.
Sign up today and your first 2 weeks are free!
KEY PERSONNEL
Philip S. Balboni, Chairman and CEO, DailyChatter LLC, and Co-Executive Editor
For the past 7 years (2008-2015), Mr. Balboni has been the Founder, President, and CEO of GlobalPost, the highly acclaimed international news site. Mr. Balboni is now in the 49th year of a journalism career that has taken him from newspapers and news agencies to broadcast and cable television to the frontlines of the revolution in digital news. A leading entrepreneur who has created and led three successful journalism ventures, Mr. Balboni has been the direct or leadership recipient of nearly every major award in American journalism including multiple Peabody, duPont-Columbia, Edward R .Murrow, and Emmy awards. He was the Founder of NECN/New England Cable News, the nation’s largest and most honored regional news network where he was president for 16 years. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Visitors at the Columbia Journalism School, a member of the Advisory Board of the Shorenstein Center on the Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Trustee of the Museum of World War II which houses the largest collection of WWII documents and artifacts in the world. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College, attended the Sorbonne in Paris, and was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Advanced International Reporting at Columbia Journalism School.
Alex S. Jones, Vice Chairman and Co-Executive Editor
A Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist whose specialty has been scrutiny of the media, Mr. Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for media coverage while at The New York Times. He is also recognized for his work in radio, television, magazines, books and digital media. From 2000 to 2015, Mr. Jones was Director of the Shorenstein Center on the Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Prior to that he was the Eugene Patterson Professor at Duke University. He is author or co-author of three celebrated books focused on media: “The Patriarch: The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty,” “The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times,” and “Losing The News: The Future of the News that Feeds Democracy.” He was founding host of public radio’s “On The Media” and host and executive editor of PBS’s “Media Matters.” Mr. Jones is frequently quoted on issues of media ethics and standards and serves on the boards of a number of media-related organizations.
Jabeen Bhatti, Senior Editor and Principal Writer
Ms. Bhatti is a highly experienced American foreign correspondent covering Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia and has written for many publications including USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, the Washington Post, and Bloomberg. Based in Berlin, she is also the Founder and Managing Editor of Associated Reporters Abroad, an international organization connecting free-lance journalists with publishers seeking coverage throughout the world, which she launched in 2009. Multi-lingual, Ms. Bhatti speaks fluent German and French and has a working knowledge of Russian, Polish, and Danish. She is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School in New York City and has a BA from American University in Washington, DC where she studied international affairs and development. She was a Fulbright Fellow in 2005/6 and a Poynter Fellow in 2001. She has also worked as a reporter for the Washington Times and the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota.
Jason Overdorf, Asia Editor
Mr. Overdorf is a veteran American foreign correspondent based in Delhi. He was a correspondent and then a Senior Correspondent for GlobalPost beginning in 2009 covering India and South Asia. Over his 15 years of international reporting, he has also worked for Newsweek, the Atlantic online, Scientific American, the Far Eastern Economic Review, GQ, the Washington Post, and Departures Magazine. Previously, he was a copy editor for Dow Jones Newswires in Hong Kong, an editor for McKinsey & Co. and a project manager for Poseidon Research, both in Delhi. He has twice been honored with Best in Business Awards by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and received an award for excellence in reporting from the World Health Organization. Mr. Overdorf graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English literature, and received an MA in English Language and Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University.
Stephen Chaloner, Director of Digital Operations
Mr. Chaloner has an extensive background in digital strategy and technology, having spent nearly a decade exploring the intersections of digital technology, business operations and marketing. For the past six years, Mr. Chaloner has been a very successful business consultant, helping small businesses with their digital strategy and adopting technology for improved operational efficiency. He’s consistently achieved strong, sustainable growth for his clients. Mr. Chaloner also owns and operates several popular websites that serve various online communities.
A graduate of Brown University, he was a varsity athlete in cross country/track and field and served as Team Captain in his senior year. Mr. Chaloner also attended the University of Edinburgh where he received an accelerated Master of Science degree on the intersection of informatics and the arts. A true digital native, Mr. Chaloner has wide-ranging interdisciplinary skills spanning design, web development, online marketing and advertising.
At DailyChatter, he oversees all digital assets including the website, email product delivery, online marketing, and analytics.
The Tennessee World Affairs Council is a nonprofit (501c3), nonpartisan educational charity based in Nashville that works to build understanding of global issues in our communities. Learn more about the Council and find how you can join, donate and volunteer at: www.TNWAC.org — Join / Donate / Volunteer
