Unpopular, but essential: why we write about secret meetings

Why does de Stentor also write stories that don’t appeal to many readers? Because it is our journalistic duty to monitor the government and expose malpractices. For example, when Gep Leeflang revealed that there were secret meetings at local authorities.

hy do local authorities hold so many meetings behind closed doors? This was a question that kept nudging at de Stentor journalist Gep Leeflang. He established that local authorities were breaking the law on a massive scale. This was a story for which he won this year’s ‘Tegel’’, the most important prize in Dutch journalism. Monitoring the government and addressing what is wrong. That is our role, our duty. Gep Leeflang immersed himself in the world of backroom meetings. This not only resulted in the revealing story that local authorities are breaking the law on a massive scale, but also a series of follow-up stories. The Municipalities of Epe and Staphorst are now questioning the practice of holding backroom meetings.

This is where regional brands such as de Stentor can make the difference. But this is also a story that does not appeal to a large audience. The data that provides us with an understanding of how well stories are found and read, shows that such subject matters are not very popular among the public. Personal stories and breaking news are often preferred.

Score well

This does not make it any less important to decide to invest time in subject matters that are ‘tougher’. Articles that may not directly affect our audience personally, but are significant for everyone. After all, we also see it as our role to monitor the government ‘on behalf of the public’.

This is the reason why many of us went into journalism

Our online reach has declined over the past year. It actually hurts a little that we are reaching fewer readers with our journalism. One of the main reasons for this is that social media are showing less news in their algorithms, so that we are unable to draw as many people towards us. But it is a conscious choice not just to make stories that we know in advance will reach a lot of people – to put it bluntly, to ‘score well’.

The trick is to write and present stories about malpractices at institutes and by executives, for example, in such a way that we reach the broadest and largest possible readership. For our online platforms this means a catchy heading and effective images, still or moving. And the story must be embellished with graphs, text boxes, audio, video and the author’s CV. Digital journalism requires much more attention than we were used to in newspapers.

We occasionally have heated discussions within the editorial team about which story should be placed at the top of the website: the best running story (i.e. the most readers) or the article with the greatest social impact? Against our better judgement (the numbers), we often choose the latter because the editorial team is heavily influenced by ‘the journalistic duty’.

But it is a difficult issue. We need as many (paying) readers as possible for the brand to remain successful, but we don’t want to drift away from our social role. Ultimately, it is the mix of different types of stories that should ensure that as many readers as possible read de Stentor online or in print every day. From hard-hitting political or societal news to human interest stories, from revealing reports to brain-teasing opinion pieces. That is what de Stentor stands for.

Reporter Gep Leeflang

Interaction

The reader’s voice

We introduced something new this year: the guest column. Every week we invite a reader to share their opinion, ideas and experiences in our newspaper. In addition to opinion pieces, guest writers and reader’s comments, this is a nice add-on to our reader platform.

The guest column enables us to show that readers are more than just news consumers; they are also active contributors. Their voices are heard. Lively discussions are often initiated online. This section helps to further strengthen the interaction and engagement between our editorial team and our readers.

The weekly columns offer a diversity of perspectives from our society, from personal stories to piercing comments. Readers feel more valued and heard, which has already resulted in many positive reactions.

Read column

Wilma Koller from Vaassen is the second of four guests selected by the editorial board following the introductory invitation to become a ‘columnist for a day’

Seeing is believing

What if a video tells you more than an entire article? What if the moment itself, captured on film, conveys the essence of the story better than a thousand words? Videos are no longer an add-on, but an essential part of our journalistic work.

We do this for an important reason: if we can show it, then we show it. Take that world-class goal scored at the local amateur football club, for example. Or a wolf on the loose in a residential area. Seeing is believing.

Videos are not just an add-on, but also an extension to our stories. In cases where text cannot explain something, a video can show exactly what words cannot capture.

Furthermore, these days video is sometimes the only thing that reaches part of our audience. What is the first thing that Gen Z asks for when we talk to them about the news? Exactly.

But videos are not just for Gen Z. They are for everyone who wants to understand news quickly and visually. This is why we use them more and more to make complex subject matters easier to understand. Visual aids help to make abstract ideas and extensive studies understandable to a wider audience. The images reinforce the story.

We also use this concept on social media: short videos – less than one minute – enable us to communicate our news in an understandable way. Or to debunk and invalidate fake news.

This calls for new ways of thinking from our editorial teams – thinking in images, not just in text. We’re no longer adding them as an afterthought, but as an integral part of our stories. It’s one of our editorial team’s focus areas: videos are part of your story. A video sometimes says more than a thousand words.