DAVOS, Switzerland â€" Arianna Huffington has long labored to make her online media empire a truly global one. Now she has enlisted an old friend with deep pockets to make a big step in that direction.
This week, Ms. Huffington and Nicolas Berggruen, a billionaire investor, unveiled the WorldPost, a splashy new venture under The Huffington Post umbrella aimed at covering a host of international issues.
WorldPost, whose ownership is split between The Huffington Post and the Berggruen Institute on Governance, fits into the model of its media parent. Since going live, the site has featured staff-reported stories and contributions from celebrities and friends of Ms. Huffington, including Bill Gates; the entrepreneur Elon Musk; and Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary.
But Ms. Huffington and Mr. Berggruen said in a joint interview that WorldPost would be more selective than the freewheeling Hufffington Post. While the site will feature contributions from both boldfaced names and lower-profile writers, the curating process will be more thorough.
“The quality bar you have to clear is high,†Ms. Huffington said.
Of course, it helps that the two each have a deep network of friends and contacts who can contribute high-profile pieces. Hence Richard Branson’s piece on business saving lives, and a conversation with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma on how arts can build empathy around the world.
Those are precisely the type of high-minded, globally focused topics that dominate the World Economic Forum here. Indeed, earlier this week Mr. Summers and Mr. Gates spoke about a new initiative to spur government investment in health care, which Mr. Summers also wrote about in the piece he contributed to WorldPost.
WorldPost’s approach to the topic, Ms. Huffington said, would be to blend reports on the latest studies about the economic impact of government investments in health, along with submissions from both the likes of Mr. Summers and unheralded experts.
“We’d welcome anybody who’s thoughtful and whom we can learn from,†Mr. Berggruen said.
The site was borne from numerous discussions between Ms. Huffington and Mr. Berggruen over the years. Among the most prominent topics: Could they create a media venture that produced quality journalism and covered topics that they believed got short shrift elsewhere?
Rather than buying an existing media organization â€" Mr. Berggruen had weighed bidding on a few â€" the two instead decided to create one.
Like The Huffington Post, WorldPost will draw revenue from sponsorships, advertising and conferences. Ms. Huffington added that The Huffington Post’s existing sales staff, which has expanded as the publication has branched out into countries like Spain, France and soon Brazil, would service the new venture as well.
While Mr. Berggruen declined to say how much his organization had invested â€" “it’s a meaningful amount,†he said â€" he added that it aimed to be profitable. Making money isn’t the primary aim, he said, but it will make the publication more sustainable.
But he added that the site would also syndicate its content, giving it to anyone who asks in what he described as an open system.
“We want an impact,†he said.
