The Crossroads of dichtbij.nl

DichtbijBorrel

Frankfurt, 19 Juni 2013

Growing dichtbij.nl:

Continuous Crossroads

The Hyperlocal Highway

Let’s take

a look at

DICHTBIJ.NL’s

crossroads

What is dichtbij.nl?

History & positioning

Editorial concept

Crowds & communities

Funding & Finance

Active in the whole country, with editorial and commercial teams in the dark green areas (the rest to follow)

THE NETHERLANDS DICHTBIJ

PART OF TMG

CONCEPT DICHTBIJ Interactive Local News & Relevant Information Combine the Skills of the Professional Journalist & Wisdom of the Amateur Self sufficiant & Collaborative outside/inside TMG No editorial freedom without focus on business

ACTIVITIES DICHTBIJ Local Journalism Community management Local Sales Content Production for TMG Services for Local Business

PRODUCTS DICHTBIJ Free Local news on desktop, mobile, app, paper User Generated Content on all platforms 12 different themes, commercially and editorially Local services like jobs, real estate, local agenda

FACTS & FIGURES (1) Founded in 2011 80 regions, 45 of which with editorial & sales staff 2,5 million unique visitors pm, 20 million pageviews, 1/3 of visits is mobile 120,000 newsletter subscriptions 75,000 followers on social media 140 employees 135,000 registered contributors (“meeschrijvers”) 250,000 articles (photos/videos included) per year

20 MILLION PAGEVIEWS Pageviews

Incidents

Pictures

Regional News

Sports

cars

Going Out

Rest

FACTS & FIGURES (2) 20 million pageviews per month;

5 million on articles about accidents & incidents

4 million on other regional and local news

6 million on pictures

The rest on various themes (cars, agenda, going out, sports, etc)

Only about 10% of the pageviews go to UGC (25% of the content)

HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ

Dichtbij (2010)

HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ

Webregio.nl (2001)

Dichtbij (2010)

HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ

Webregio.nl (2001)

Weekly dtd’s (20th century)

Dichtbij (2010)

HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ

Webregio.nl (2001)

Weekly dtd’s (20th century)

Dichtbij (2010)

+ ???

45 FULL LIVE PLATFORMS + 100’s SUBs

35 AGGREGATION PLATFORMS

“FIRST STAGE”

(2% of visits)

SNEAK PREVIEW

APP &

MOBILE:

2468

PLACES 34% Mobile

desktop

mobile

APP &

MOBILE:

LOCAL

DEALS

85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

“MEESCHRIJVERS” ON DICHTBIJ Meeschrijvers (contributors) can upload content without barriers

The only thing you have to do is fill in an account, log in and off you go.

The community manager will check & curate all UGC

EXAMPLE: ARTICLE OF A MEESCHRIJVER 1.833 Local Pageviews

28 Comments

Keys to success:

Relevant topic

Video / picture

Links to more information

Written in an activist way

EXAMPLE: ARTICLE OF A MEESCHRIJVER 68 comments

8,328 local pageviews

Keys to success:

Relevant local content

Animals always click

Written in an authentic way

Call to action

EXAMPLE: ARTICLES OF A LOCAL ADVOCATE 6 articles 10,000+ pageviews Direct action from

municipality Keys to success:

Relevant local content Powerful call to action Real, authentic anger Simple solution offered

EXAMPLE: ARTICLE OF A MEESCHRIJVER 6,450 pageviews 23 comments

Key to success: “Popular demand” Well documented Recognizable Involved writing

EXAMPLE: PICTURES BY MEESCHRIJVERS 2,623 pageviews Big hit on Facebook

Key to success: Call to action: “send us

your rainbow pictures” Everyone saw this Everybody likes to be

published Competition!

EXAMPLE: CROWD SOURCED NEWS The Garbage Map:

Hundreds of tips & articles Map received 20,000 clicks in first two weeks Municipality reacts and takes action

EXAMPLE: SERIES OF A MEESCHRIJVER “Tijger” in the city forrest:

Every week one article 25 articles in total We might publish a book

EXAMPLE: SERIES OF A MEESCHRIJVER No journalists allowed in refugee camp (Groningen)

20 Stories from within the camp

Biased, non-journalistic, but authentic

Scoops day after day

EXAMPLE: COMMENTS THAT SOLVE

Museum exposed as visitor-unfriendly Museum takes action

EXAMPLE: PRAISE FROM THE COMMUNITY

Communitymanager is part of the community 4 articles by meeschrijvers at her birthday

ONLINE & OFFLINE MEETINGS

Community managers organise events, drinks, library meetings, etc

FUNDING DICHTBIJ

Lots of experiments, and lots of plans, but…

…up to now only one thing works really well:

display advertising

(+/- 80% of revenue is from buttons & banners)

DICHTBIJ ON TELEGRAAF.NL

The brilliant move: 40% of all visits come from Telegraaf.nl

The Hyperlocal Highway

THE MANY CROSSROADS

IS DICHTBIJ A SUCCESS?

IS DICHTBIJ A SUCCESS?

BUT IS DICHTBIJ A STABLE SUCCESS?

COMPARED TO 1 YEAR AGO: YES!

HARDLY. . .

GARANTEES FOR THE FUTURE? Only if we succeed for ourselves:

Break even in 2013 New business models as an add-on to display New (related?) local activities Useful for other parts of TMG Fitting in the company’s (and shareholders’) strategy

www.dichtbij.nl http://dodebomen.nl

Facebook.com/dodebomen Frankfurt, 19 Juni 2013

Bart Brouwers @brewbart slideshare.net/brewbart bart.brouwers@dichtbij.nl

Thank you for your time!