Self-critical, but also proud

T

he editors-in-chief of NU.nl have been writing a review of the week for years. How did we do? What should we have done better? What was the opinion of our readers? An editorial team must constantly judge themselves. 

This report was only sent to the editorial team, until someone said: “Why don’t we share this with all our visitors? They have a right to know how we do our work.” This suggestion initially resulted in questioning looks and then, once the ‘From the editors-in-chief’ column was published on NU.nl, there were hundreds of thousands of readers every week and hundreds of comments. 

Editors-in-chief are increasingly taking public accountability for their methods. And rightly so. Journalism is under a magnifying glass and every question deserves an answer. Yet editorial teams often hesitate to share the impact of their daily reporting, the dilemmas they face, or how they’re innovating to engage readers, listeners, and viewers. 

That’s why we’ve asked our editors-in-chief to do exactly that once a year, in an annual journalism report. Because the whole world may know that within the editorial walls of DPG Media’s publications, we’re not only self-critical, but often also proud.

The annual journalism report covers the year 2024 for sixteen news brands: thirteen in the Netherlands, three in Belgium. I’m sometimes asked “Why DPG Media is so big?” Because it’s very difficult for news media on their own, especially for smaller companies. There is fierce competition worldwide in the media for readers, viewers and listeners. The apps of our brands are next to those of the tech giants from Silicon Valley. It is therefore helpful to be able to share knowledge of and the costs for IT and marketing, as well as for newspaper printing and delivery. 

In this way, large corporations can contribute to the preservation of national and regional media and thus diversity. Provided that they deal well with their great responsibility for journalistic neutrality and independence and respect the distinctive character of the different brands. And that’s exactly what we at DPG Media do every day.