''De Correspondent'' is a Dutch

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based in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

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. It was launched on 30 September 2013 after raising more than in a crowdfunding campaign in eight days. 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 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. An English-language news site, titled ''The Correspondent'', launched on September 30, 2019. English language version. The site raised through a crowdfunding campaign in late 2018, boosted by prominent backers including

Jay Rosen Jay Rosen (born May 5, 1956) is a writer, and a professor of journalism at New York University. Rosen is a contributor to ''De Correspondent'' and a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards board of directors. Biography Rosen has been on ...

and

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. 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. On 10 December 2020, ''NiemanLab'' broke the news that ''The Correspondent'' would be closing down on 31 December 2020.

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

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of the Dutch newspaper ''

NRC Next ''nrc•next'' () was a Dutch daily newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis. The first edition was released on 14 March 2006. It was stopped in March 2021. ''nrc•next'' was a morning edition tabloid, and its primary target group a ...

'', proposed the crowdfunding idea for an ad-free news media platform on national television in March 2013. Eight days later, he and his team reached their goal of 15,000 subscribers all paying €60 for a one-year membership. 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. In January 2016 the number of paying subscribers on the website was reported to be 50,000. In 2014, ''De Correspondent'' concluded a deal with

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’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. In 2015, ''De Correspondent'' started translating stories from Dutch to English. In December 2018, an English-language newsroom, ''The Correspondent'', reached its crowdfunding goal of . The crowdfunding was enabled by a US$1.8 million "runway funding" by grants and loans from the

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, the Dutch Democracy and Media Foundation, and

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Philanthropies. Its first news stories were published in September 2019. On 31 December 2020, ''The Correspondent'' is due to shut down. Pfauth and Whjnberg noted that the platform was no longer financially viable due to two primary reasons: poor conversion and retention of members, especially with only 27% of founding members renewed for the 2021 fiscal year, as well as readers' demand for more immediate news in light of the

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that ran contrary to the outlet's concept of "unbreaking news".

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.

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.

Criticism

At least one incident involving editorial integrity was pointed out by Sarah Kendzior, a political journalist and one-time correspondent for ''De Correspondent''. In 2018, Kendzior expressed concern on Twitter that an editor at ''De Correspondent'' was refusing to review her draft articles due to climate change denial. The outlet denied these allegations in a public letter on Twitter, as well as an accusation that they deleted Kendzior's articles as retaliation. However, Kendzior replied that their responses "grossly misrepresent" the "deep disagreement" behind this conflict. The fundraising campaign for ''The Correspondent'' featured endorsements from political celebrities primarily based in the United States, including Jimmy Wales, DeRay McKesson, and

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. As such, crowdfunding supporters as well as "ambassadors" including Baratunde Thurston and

Nate Silver Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder and editor-in-chief of ''FiveThirtyEigh ...

noted an expectation that ''The Correspondent'' will launch as an outlet specifically focused on the United States. However, a progress update from the platform in April 2019 revealed that the platform did not intend to build a physical presence in the United States. Zainab Shah, a former strategy leader of BuzzFeed who resigned from ''The Correspondent'' a month prior, claimed that the platform's decisions "was a betrayal" and criticized the fundraising drive for operating under a "false pretense". The outlet tweeted on April 30, 2019 an unsigned letter that apologized for having "screwed up" its public launch. In it, ''The Correspondent'' noted that they "initially envisioned setting up a newsroom in the US" but "poorly communicated" changes in that vision to supporters and staff, and falsely represented the platform's vision as an American version of ''De Correspondent''.

References

External links