Philip S. Balboni
Founder, CEO and Co-Executive Editor
Philip Balboni is the principal owner, CEO and Co- Executive Editor of DailyChatter, a non-partisan, internationally focused email newsletter launched in March 2016. DailyChatter is subscription based, accepts no advertising and publishes every weekday of the year.
Mr. Balboni has long been a leading journalism entrepreneur and is the director leadership recipient of nearly every major award in American journalism including multiple Peabody, duPont-Columbia, Edward R. Murrow, and Emmy awards.
Mr. Balboni is also the recipient of two awards for lifetime service to the First Amendment – one from the Radio Television Digital News Association and the other from the New England First Amendment Coalition. In addition, he’s received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, the Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Yankee Quill Award from the New England Society of Newspaper Editors, and he was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2015.
In 2008, he became the Founder, President and CEO of GlobalPost, one of the first native digital news sites started in the United States. Mr. Balboni sold GlobalPost to the WGBH Educational Foundation, America’s premier public broadcasting entity, in late 2015.
In GlobalPost, Mr. Balboni created the country’s first purely digital news organization devoted solely to international reporting. From its launch in January 2009, GlobalPost built a network of correspondents around the world and a significant global audience and earned a reputation for editorial excellence winning in a short period of time the George Foster Peabody Award, two Edward R. Murrow Awards for its international video reporting, the Polk and Overseas Press Club Awards for its coverage of the Syrian and Libyan civil wars, the Edwin Hood Diplomacy Award from the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
As GlobalPost’s Founder, Mr. Balboni fulfilled a lifelong dream to create a new US-based international news organization. He conceived the editorial structure, wrote the business plan, and raised the capital to fund the venture by bringing together a group of highly credentialed investors.
Mr. Balboni was previously the Founder and President of NECN/New England Cable News, the nation’s largest and most honored regional news network with more than 3.7 million subscribers in the six-state region. With the creation of NECN in 1992, Mr. Balboni became a pioneer in the development of 24-hour regional and local cable news in the United States.
As NECN’s Founder, Mr. Balboni conceptualized the network, developed its business plan and negotiated the joint ownership venture between the Hearst Corporation, one of the largest private media companies in the world, and Continental Cablevision, then the third largest cable system operator in the United States. NECN rapidly built a national reputation for excellence in local and regional news, winning all of the country’s major television news awards including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and two national Edward R. Murrow Awards. NECN is now wholly owned by NBC Universal.
Previously, Mr. Balboni served as Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer of the Hearst Corporation with responsibility for technology strategy and new projects. During this period, Mr. Balboni played a key role in founding the News in the Future Consortium at the MIT Media Lab where he served as a Member of its Executive Board for five years, joining representatives from more than 20 leading US and international media and telecommunications companies.
A hallmark of Mr. Balboni’s career has been his ability to conceive and execute new forms of high-quality journalism while simultaneously achieving strong commercial results. At WCVB-TV, the ABC television station in Boston, he held a series of key management positions from 1972 to 1990. In 1982, he conceived and launched the nightly newsmagazine “Chronicle” which has gone on to become the most successful local television program in American history, winning dozens of important awards for excellence and achieving significant long-term audience and financial success. Chronicle is currently in its 36th broadcast year. In his eight years as Vice President and News Director at WCVB, he reshaped and gave new vision to the station’s news department, gaining a prominent national reputation for excellence and for bold innovation while maintaining consistent No. 1 market ratings.
While at the station, Mr. Balboni was the direct or leadership recipient of scores of national and regional journalism awards, including 9 Emmys, the Edward R. Murrow Award for best local television news organization in America, as well as the coveted Peabody, duPont-Columbia, and Gabriel awards. He was also twice named outstanding broadcast editorialist in America during the period in which he directed the station’s Editorial Department and personally delivered most of the editorials on-air.
Mr. Balboni has been a long-time member of the Board of Visitors of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and is currently a member of its Executive Committee. He was also the longest serving member in history of the national jury for the duPont-Columbia Awards in Broadcast Journalism. He is also a long-serving member of the Advisory Board of the Shorenstein Center on the Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. In early 2019, he was named a member of the Board of the Peabody Awards, the most prestigious award in television, radio and podcasting. He is also a Trustee of the International Museum of World War II in Boston which houses the world’s largest collection of artifacts and documents on the war. He is also a member of the President’s Council of the Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest organization serving the homeless.
He was Chairman of the Association of Regional News Channels during a critical period in which the Association saw enormous growth in membership and national attention for 24-hour local cable news as a new genre of television. He also served as President of the New England Broadcasting Association, the region’s leading professional organization for radio and television stations and advertising agencies, during the year of its 50th anniversary.
He was for many years a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Columbia Journalism Review; a trustee of Emerson College in Boston; a member of the Visiting Committee of the Gastro Intestinal Cancer Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute; a member of the National Advisory Board for the Caption Center, the country’s oldest institution devoted to making television accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired; President of the National Broadcast Editorial Association; and a Board member of the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.
Mr. Balboni began his journalism career in 1967 as a general assignment reporter for The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch and then moved to United Press International where he was a correspondent and editor in the Boston bureau. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College, received a certificate in French language and civilization from the Sorbonne in Paris, and was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Advanced International Reporting at Columbia Journalism School.
Mr. Balboni served two years on active duty as a United States Army officer including a tour in Vietnam in the mid-1960s. He is married to Elizabeth C. Houghteling and they have a son, Philip C. H. Balboni. Mr. Balboni also has a daughter, Jessica Scribner Balboni.
Updated March 2019