We think this is exciting stuff!
Rob Wijnberg, former chief editor of NRC Handelsblad, a quality
newspaper in the Netherlands, has set up a new initiative, the Correspondent (www.decorrespondent.nl). The new
online news site will aim to contextualise the news using high profile and well
respected journalists. The exciting bit however is their business approach.
Instead of looking to investors to fund the start-up they are looking for
subscribers, 15.000 of them to be precise, who are willing to put down 60 Euros
per year to receive in depth news analysis and reporting. No investors that you
need to keep happy, no advertising to accommodate, you only get what you buy
and who wouldn’t want that? Well, they managed to find the required numbers in
no time at all, with 22 days to go until their self-imposed deadline. And even if
they wouldn’t have reached the 15000 subscribers they would have just refunded the
money. Elegantly simple and effective.
If I were an advertising agency I would be scratching my head a lot
these days, with TV moving towards a Netflix model, Radio towards Spotify, and
now print and online media under attack as well. It seems the world is changing
rapidly and traditional advertising is becoming like a dinosaur looking at that
beautiful bright burning piece of rock that has suddenly appeared in the sky.
Q.
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