De Correspondent

De Correspondent is a Dutch news website based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was launched on 30 September 2013 after raising more than €1 million in a crowdfunding campaign in eight days.[2] The website distinguishes itself by rejecting the daily news cycle and focusing on in-depth and chronological coverage on a topical basis, led by individual correspondents who each focus on specific topics. Sometimes it publishes English versions of its articles.

"The Correspondent" redirects here. For the 1960s Harvard newsletter, see The Committee of Correspondence Newsletter.
De Correspondent
Available inDutch, English (partly)
OwnerDe Correspondent B.V.
EditorRob Wijnberg
URLDeCorrespondent.nl
Alexa rank 86,989 (April 2016)[1]
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired
Users60,000
Launched30 September 2013 (2013-09-30)
Current statusOnline

The concept and initial success of De Correspondent has inspired other projects elsewhere. A German website Krautreporter was founded in 2014 and adopted the same concept.[3]

An English-language news site, titled The Correspondent, launched on September 30, 2019.[4] The site raised US$2.6 million through a crowdfunding campaign in late 2018, boosted by prominent backers including Jay Rosen and Trevor Noah.[5][6] However, it endured substantial criticism after it was announced that it would not open an office in the United States, as many backers had anticipated.[6]

History

The project was co-founded by Dutch journalist Rob Wijnberg, creative director Harald Dunnink, CTO Sebastian Kersten, and publisher Ernst-Jan Pfauth. Wijnberg, former editor-in-chief of the Dutch newspaper, NRC Next, proposed the crowdfunding idea for an ad-free news media platform on national television in March 2013.[7] Eight days later, he and his team reached their goal of 15,000 subscribers all paying €60 for a one-year membership.[8] Wijnberg worked with digital creative agency Momkai and its owners, Harald Dunnink and Sebastian Kersten, served as creative director and CTO respectively. Ernst-Jan Pfauth, who had been the founding editor of The Next Web and head of digital at Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, joined as a publisher.

The website went live in September 2013. By January 2015 the website had more than 45,000 paying subscribers.[9] In January 2016 the number of paying subscribers on the website was reported to be 50,000.[10]

In 2014, De Correspondent concluded a deal with Medium’s magazine Matter, for the magazine to translate stories from De Correspondent that they believe are relevant for an international audience. The first article in the partnership concerned the hazards of using public Wi-Fi.[11]

In 2015, De Correspondent started translating stories from Dutch to English.

In December 2018, an English-language newsroom, The Correspondent,[12] reached its crowdfunding goal of US$2.5 million to start.[13] Its first news stories were published in September 2019.[4]

Content

The website aims to move away from the daily news cycle by focusing on context, rather than what happened in the past 24 hours. Individual correspondents lead as "guides" — deciding the news agenda and making their choices explicit. De Correspondent intends its authors to report on under-reported themes including energy, privacy, technology, and future economic trends.[14]

Technology

De Correspondent runs on a content management system (CMS) called Respondens. In several blog posts, the founders said that they might make Respondens available for other publishers in the future.[15]

gollark: Ah, good, it seems like they do for at least some.
gollark: For all car-related data harvesting.
gollark: Do they actually have an opt out?
gollark: I don't actually have a car, but it seems like with the increasing amount of computers in them and requirements for mobile connectivity and such in them, they're moving away from this.
gollark: Generally, I think my things should do what I want and not enforce artificial lockouts on things, randomly break unrepairably, report data back to whoever, run unauditable proprietary software, or do weird stuff in the background.

See also

References
  1. Site Overview decorrespondent.nl, Alexa Internet. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  2. "A Dutch crowdfunded news site has raised $1.3 million and hopes for a digital-native journalism". Nieman Lab.
  3. Hardt, Maria-Xenia (13 May 2014). "15 000 Mal sechzig Euro" [15 000 times sixty euro]. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  4. "The Correspondent — Unbreaking news". The Correspondent. The Netherlands. Retrieved 2018-12-16. English language version.
  5. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. "JAY ROSEN - CREATING A SPACE FOR AD-FREE JOURNALISM WITH THE CORRESPONDENT". Comedy Central. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  6. Ingram, Mathew (March 28, 2019). "Crowdfunded journalism startup The Correspondent under fire". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  7. "Journalistiek initiatief 'De Correspondent' van Rob Wijnberg". De Wereld Draait Door. 18 March 2013.
  8. "A Dutch crowdfunded news site has raised $1.3 million and hopes for a digital-native journalism".
  9. "Kom je werken bij De Correspondent?". De Correspondent. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  10. Ernst-Jan Pfauth (January 22, 2017). "De Correspondent now has 50,000 paying members". Medium. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  11. Matter. "Here's Why Public Wifi is a Public Health Hazard". Medium.
  12. the Correspondent
  13. Bell, Emily (16 December 2018). "National Enquirer: Trump scandal shows the need for accountability". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2018-12-16.
  14. Gyldensted, Cathrine (24 October 2014). "How journalists could be more constructive – and boost audiences". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2018-12-16.
  15. "Looking For The Best Content Management Systems (CMS) Out There". Pfauth.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
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