United for News, a joint venture between Internews and the World Economic Forum, officially launched at the WEF annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on January 23. United for News is the first global, multi stakeholder coalition committed to transforming media markets around the world so that citizens, businesses and governments everywhere can benefit from the positive impact of high-quality, local news and information. The coalition joins the combined expertise and commitment of global media, advertisers, mobile operators, brands, academics, media capacity builders and regional and local media. The inaugural members include Internews, the News Integrity Initiative, Bloomberg, GSMA, Vodafone, the London School of Economics, Omidyar Network, the Global Forum for Media Development and the Media Development Investment Fund.
At the launch, existing and prospective members engaged in discussions around the key initiatives the coalition will undertake for the year. The coalition has a strong preference for initiatives that have the potential for positive systemic impact on disrupted local and regional media markets. The current initiatives will focus on advertising white listing, advertising metrics and gender and media. Over the course of the year, additional regional and global members will be selectively added to expand the expertise of the coalition. A unifying commitment among all members is to strengthen quality, local media.