Covering the World: Introducing The WorldPost

DAVOS -- Greetings from Davos. I'm here for the 44th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, where the theme is "The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business," and I'm in a global state of mind. That's not only because I'm in the company of 2,500 business leaders, heads of state and young entrepreneurs from all over the world, or because I flew in yesterday from Munich and am bound next week for S?o Paulo for the launch of Brasil Post. It's mostly because we've chosen this moment to launch The WorldPost, in partnership with the Berggruen Institute on Governance. It's a moment that represents the culmination of more than a year of conversations between Nicolas Berggruen, our editor-in-chief Nathan Gardels, executive editor Peter Goodman and me about the need for a global platform that can bring together a mix of perspectives, from world leaders to young people whose voices might otherwise go unheard. And that's exactly what The WorldPost will do. With a mix of boots-on-the-ground reporting, opinion and analysis, The WorldPost will be a hub for everything from political and economic news to discussions of the cultural and artistic forces shaping and reshaping our increasingly global collective imagination.

The launch of The WorldPost comes at a time when the hunger for an expanded global conversation is stronger than ever. HuffPost will be in 10 countries by the end of January, when we launch in Brazil, and already, just two and a half years after we launched our first international edition in Canada, 44 percent of our readers come from outside the U.S. The WorldPost is our way of doubling down on our international coverage by partnering with the Berggruen Institute, a "think and action tank" engaging some of the world's most influential thinkers and entrepreneurs on the issues that will shape the 21st century and beyond. By bringing together the resources and stellar contributors of the Berggruen Institute, the coverage of our growing network of international editions and a new team of on-the-ground reporters -- in Beijing, Cairo and Syria -- The WorldPost will combine the best of traditional journalism with the best of an open media and new technologies. We've come a long way from 2009, when our HuffPost World editor Nicholas Sabloff -- now our executive international editor -- stepped out of our New York office to get lunch and then had to rush back with his burrito because war had broken out in Gaza and he was the only one on the World section.

Building a global news operation that aims to cover the world in a way that's both sweeping and nuanced will benefit immensely from the experience and expertise of our editorial board. In addition to Nicolas and me, the board includes Juan Luis Cebrián, CEO of PRISA; John Elkann, vice chairman of the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation and chairman of La Stampa; Yoichi Funabashi, president of the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation and former editor-in-chief of Asahi Shimbun; Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute; Wadah Khanfar, president of Al Sharq Forum; Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and First Look Media; Dileep Padgaonkar, consulting editor to The Times of India; and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google.

There are certain issues that we believe are central in reshaping our world, which The WorldPost will relentlessly cover: the occupations and jobs of the future, including youth unemployment; personal and planetary sustainability; political governance; the future of China; philosophical and spiritual inquiries; global health and well-being; new approaches to fighting the drug war; and the ways that stress and burnout are impacting people's lives, companies' bottom lines and health care costs.

The WorldPost's editor-in-chief is Nathan Gardels, a senior adviser at the Berggruen Institute and a co-author of Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century, with Nicolas Berggruen. Peter Goodman, who has led HuffPost's business coverage for more than two years as executive business editor, is The WorldPost's executive editor. Marla Friedman is the managing editor for global news, and Nicholas Sabloff is executive international editor.

Our launch features include Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels on the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Bill Gates on the potential of vaccines to improve millions of lives worldwide, Chrystia Freeland on the growing backlash against the world's superrich, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on the eruption of middle-class discontent in Brazil, Yo-Yo Ma on the ways that arts and creativity can foster global empathy, Elon Musk on the innovations that will shape the future, Larry Summers and Gavin Yamey on investing in global health equality, Richard Branson on what business can do to improve people's lives, Patrick Soon-Shiong on the need for a platform allowing doctors and patients to share medical information, Indian-American author Parag Khanna on globalization and emerging economies, Peter Goodman on the consequences of our global interconnectedness, WorldPost Cairo correspondent Sophia Jones on Egypt's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, our Middle East Bureau Chief Max Rosenthal on the state of the war in Syria, Gregory Beyer on the shift that has prompted global leaders to include well-being in their definition of success, Bianca Bosker on the Japanese phenomenon of digital girlfriends, and Gerry Smith on the skyrocketing incidence of smartphone theft around the world.

We're also featuring the work of several brilliant young bloggers from around the world, including Spanish journalist Carlos Carnicero on the real threats to the future of the European Union, 19-year-old Italian online security writer Andrea Stroppa on the dark side of our hyperconnected existence, and gay theologian David Berger on whether Pope Francis will actually change the Catholic Church's position on gay rights.

So wherever you may be in the world, welcome to the The WorldPost. As always, please use the comments section to let us know what you think.

Read more coverage from LinkedIn Influencers in Davos here.

Photo: Copyright by World Economic Forum / swiss-image.ch/Photo Moritz Hager / Flickr