If the previous story convinced you that it’s time to raise the bar, then you’ll be happy to know that Monocle has assigned the task of improving the state of television news to some of the world’s more forward-thinking journalists.

Scandinavia’s public and private broadcasters have all the skills in both technology and economics to develop a new global media brand to rival CNN, and spread sensible Nordic values to both established and developing markets.

Anchored out of Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Reykjavik, the Nordic News Network would be a multi-platform media brand broadcasting via satellite, broadband and phone networks with audio and video programming. With bureaux in Tokyo, Bangkok, Delhi, Cairo, Johannesburg, Brussels, London, Moscow, Washington DC and Los Angeles, NNN would offer top-quality speech and images around the clock to a global audience starved of an alternative, international voice. What follows is the identity and talent line-up for the network.

NNN will be committed to getting it first and fresh, which is why its correspondents need an aggressive, well-branded microphone to get into the faces of wrong-doers, right-thinkers, celebrities and the suffering. The NNN logo has been designed by Monocle’s own Ken Leung.

For cub reporters, there’s no better way to make an impression on press attachés than by asking cheeky questions and having a business card they can’t forget. The NNN blue-on-black corporate identity stands out from the stack of white laser-printed cards with its tactile spot-varnish and thick, rich stock.

Where other networks accept freebies and cross the commercial line to please advertisers, the NNN Code of Conduct calls for diversity behind the desk, transparency in reporting, editorial budgets to support fair, objective reporting, no unreasonable sponsorship alliances and an open forum for appeal by subjects who feel misrepresented.

NNN requires agility for breaking stories, and craft for documentaries. Its network of correspondents will be armed with an arsenal of Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD cameras to deliver outstanding feature-length films. They will also have the wonderfully portable a-cam, made by the Stockholm brand Ikonoskop (see page 170).

A bureau chief in a less-connected locale still requires a heavyweight letterhead to cut through to bureaucrats who like to finger thick paper stock and fondle a glossy raised letterhead. For our man in Malabo and woman in Tashkent, we reckon this will more than do the trick.

From the streets of Bangkok to airstrips in Siberia, NNN will have a range of vehicles to uplink stories, protect correspondents and speed crews to news. From Honda scooters for the backstreets of London to Pilatus PC-12s for the most rugged strips, NNN will aim to be the world’s best-resourced news organisation.

Out goes the video wall, newsroom backdrop and over-the-top circular desk, and in comes an elegant, inviting studio. Our dream line-up would include Hilary Andersson, Lyse Doucet, Hilary Brown, Indira Naidoo, Fionnuala Sweeney, Matthew Chance, Christine Ockrent and Etsuko Komiya.

Everyone likes to see people smile, squirm and melt in the presence of a good interview. NNN will pride itself in getting the biggest names into its Fritz Hansen and Kasthall-fitted studio, while also putting the spotlight on emerging talent in politics, business, culture and design.