Journalism will only continue to innovate and flourish online, the CEO of GlobalPost.com, the new international news agency launched today, has said.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, the website's co-founder Philip Balboni said it would be unimaginable to achieve the Post's mission - to provide high quality foreign news reporting from 'on-the-ground' journalists - on a traditional media platform.

Creating an online-only organisation will allow the Post to become part of the growing trend of news consumption online and shield itself from the legacy problems currently being experienced by many traditional outlets making the move online, he said.

"The internet is the only route for journalism in the future. It is on the web that journalism will develop new opportunities and strength," said Balboni.

[Read Journalism.co.uk's full interview with Balboni at this link]

Online journalism and news has not yet developed in the same way as other industries, such as music and retail, he added.

"The innovation of journalism on the internet has lagged. People have moved their content over from the legacy platform and they have found a way to put it onto the web and they've forgotten to augment it and do some experimentation," he said.

The Post, which will employ a network of freelance journalists across the world and publish both free and paid-for content online, will experiment with new business and editorial models for journalism, he added.

"It's part of the cutting edge - what I'm confident will be a new flowering of journalism on the internet, each maybe with slightly different business models. This is where it has to happen."

"If we are successful it will help us show the way for others. You could become very optimistic about the future of journalism if you can get your head into seeing the internet and its distributive power and have a willingness to create a new model."