The heart of De Correspondent is our founding document from 2013 – a manifesto of sorts – and these core principles have informed how we’ve built De Correspondent ... 1. De Correspondent provides an antidote to the daily news grind. 2. De Correspondent challenges oversimplification and stereotyping.
Here are the top four headlines from the "selected stories from our archives" section on the front page:
"This is how we can fight Donald Trump’s attack on democracy"
"If Shell knew climate change was dire 25 years ago, why still business as usual today?"
"We’re heading into dark times. This is how to be your own light in the Age of Trump"
"How billions vanish into the black hole that is the security industry"
These headlines read exactly like a typical front page of the Guardian. How is this "challenging oversimplification" or being "an antidote to the daily news grind"? I can find content like that anywhere on the internet for free, its value is literally zero.
The Manifesto itself does not seem very consistent. It says things like:
Correspondents are fair and independent, yet also explicitly subjective
and
De Correspondent is ambitious in its ideals, yet modest in its claims
after making a series of decidedly not modest claims. It also has this amusing statement:
Although De Correspondent is a commercial, for-profit enterprise, we do not strive to maximize profits for shareholders. A profit ceiling has been stipulated in our statutes: Any profit distribution may not be greater than 5% of revenues.
But 20 seconds googling throws up a claim that the average profit margin in the newspaper industry is around 3.2%, which sounds about right. Average profit margins across all industries are 10% but the news industry is famously in decline and laying off employees, so 10% would be far too high. Aiming for 5% profit margins as if it's some great sacrifice indicates that either they believe their readers don't know much about business, or they themselves don't know. Neither possibility makes me want to subscribe.
The heart of De Correspondent is our founding document from 2013 – a manifesto of sorts – and these core principles have informed how we’ve built De Correspondent ... 1. De Correspondent provides an antidote to the daily news grind. 2. De Correspondent challenges oversimplification and stereotyping.
Here are the top four headlines from the "selected stories from our archives" section on the front page:
"This is how we can fight Donald Trump’s attack on democracy"
"If Shell knew climate change was dire 25 years ago, why still business as usual today?"
"We’re heading into dark times. This is how to be your own light in the Age of Trump"
"How billions vanish into the black hole that is the security industry"
These headlines read exactly like a typical front page of the Guardian. How is this "challenging oversimplification" or being "an antidote to the daily news grind"? I can find content like that anywhere on the internet for free, its value is literally zero.
The Manifesto itself does not seem very consistent. It says things like:
Correspondents are fair and independent, yet also explicitly subjective
and
De Correspondent is ambitious in its ideals, yet modest in its claims
after making a series of decidedly not modest claims. It also has this amusing statement:
Although De Correspondent is a commercial, for-profit enterprise, we do not strive to maximize profits for shareholders. A profit ceiling has been stipulated in our statutes: Any profit distribution may not be greater than 5% of revenues.
But 20 seconds googling throws up a claim that the average profit margin in the newspaper industry is around 3.2%, which sounds about right. Average profit margins across all industries are 10% but the news industry is famously in decline and laying off employees, so 10% would be far too high. Aiming for 5% profit margins as if it's some great sacrifice indicates that either they believe their readers don't know much about business, or they themselves don't know. Neither possibility makes me want to subscribe.