Award-Winning Broadcast Journalist - Paul Mason - Appointed President and CEO of Independent Broadcaster Link TV

"As the quality of global news on mainstream television continues to devolve, we see an opportunity to extend the reach of Link TV's global news and content incompletely new ways," says Mason.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Link TV, the U.S.-based global affairs independent broadcaster, today announced the appointment of Paul Mason, an award-winning TV news producer and documentarian, as its new president and CEO. Mason, a 28-year veteran of ABC News, says his blueprint for Link TV includes "next generation" digital news platforms combined with Link's strong foundation of independent global journalism, such as the Peabody Award-winning program, Mosaic: World News From the Middle East, the newly-launched LinkAsia program, and Link News, a new semantic Web platform for global news videos, articles and social actions.

As a broadcast journalist, Mason served as senior vice president and the executive-in-charge of several ABC News shows, including Nightline, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and ABC News Radio. He also directed all political coverage at ABC News and served as executive producer for the weekend edition of World News Tonight. Through the course of his career, Mason's work earned an Emmy (plus 14 Emmy nominations), four Cine Golden Eagles, and the New York Film Festival Grand Prize for his one-hour news documentary, Judgment at Midnight. He was a member of the ABC News team that won the DuPont Silver Baton and the Peabody Award for coverage of the events of September 11, 2001.

"Link TV is trying to shape a new global TV news model. We are aggregating and curating news content and documentary films from independent and unfiltered voices around the world, and in the process providing a completely fresh and innovative take on global events without the intrusion of editors who don't speak the language or understand the culture where the actual events take place," said Mason. "At Link TV, global news is an extension of the cultural fluency of our very diverse and eclectic staff."

For more than a decade, Link TV—and its parent organization, Link Media—has provided an independent source of global news and programming to U.S. audiences through DIRECTV and DISH satellite networks, and online through LinkTV.org. Through partnerships with technology companies, global news sources and global entertainment providers, Link's continuing and new projects include:

• Link News, a new online platform for global news videos, articles and social actions, which leverages YouTube and other platforms to offer news and information from diverse international sources, including both produced content and raw on-the-ground footage.
• ViewChange.org, an online hub funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, uses cutting-edge semantic Web technology to connect top documentaries about global poverty with social actions and news for users. ViewChange.org includes films from ONE, Save the Children, Oxfam, UNICEF, CONCERN, PSI, Bread for the World and other leaders in global development.
• LinkAsia, a new half-hour Asian news show hosted by Yul Kwon, entrepreneur and winner of Survivor: Cook Islands, provides video news stories and social media reports directly from China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan and elsewhere in Asia, translated for U.S. audiences.
• Link Media is one of the only U.S. media organizations currently broadcasting Al Jazeera English. During the "Arab Spring," Link provided 14 hours of daily coverage from Al Jazeera's breaking news on the ground in the Middle East.
• The new Danish drama series Borgen (Government), from the producers of the hit The Killing, premieres October 29 exclusively in the U.S. on Link TV. The series follows the rise to power of Denmark's first female prime minister who secures a landslide victory through her idealism, but then has to face enormous challenges, both professional and private.

Under the direction of Mason, Link Media plans to launch a comprehensive global news iPad and smartphone app that curates and translates the best global news, using Web 3.0 semantic technology to link users to related articles, videos and direct ways to get involved in global events. The app will launch in 2012.

"The future of global news will be about curation, it will be social, and it will be semantic—and what we're creating at Link is all of those things," said Mason. "If you look at the success of the Huffington Post, you can see some of the same forces at work – curated news combined with original reporting and content. We plan to be a leader in global programming and news in the digital age."

For Paul Mason's full bio, photo and additional information about Link TV, please visit www.LinkTV.org/Newsroom.

ABOUT LINK MEDIA & LINK TV

Link Media uses media and the power of stories to engage, inform and inspire its audiences to participate in transformational, sustainable change on issues of global importance. Founded in 1999, Link Media operates the Link TV national network and the websites LinkTV.org and ViewChange.org. An independent and non-commercial media company, Link Media acquires, produces and delivers global news, documentaries and cultural programming over three distribution channels: broadcast, Web and mobile devices.

A pioneer in news and current affairs programming, Link TV has been recognized for its original news programs including the Peabody Award-winning daily broadcast Mosaic: World News from the Middle East, which monitors and airs unedited selections of news reports from more than 43 Middle Eastern broadcasters. Link TV also offers original, innovative participatory programs promoting national and global citizen action.

Link TV is available as basic service on DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH Network channel 9410, reaching more than 35 million U.S. households. Select Link TV programming also airs on 220 cable outlets, including in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, reaching an additional 22 million homes. Link also streams much of its content online at LinkTV.org. For complete background information, program schedule and Internet streaming, go to LinkTV.org.

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SOURCE Link TV