#MediaRumble: Europe’s youngest editor-in-chief talks about subscription-driven news models

In a one-on-one conversation, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri talks to Robert Wijnberg, the youngest editor-in-chief of a national daily newspaper in Europe, about a new, counter-intuitive news model based on subscription. 

Describing himself as a “thinking journalist”,  Wijnberg talked about the news process in mainstream media. He said, “News is more about scoop or news first.” In present-day newsrooms, it isn’t as much about thinking these days, he added. 

Journalists, therefore, end up doing what they are supposed to do instead of doing what they want to do, Wijnberg said. In facilitating the journalists to write what they want to write about instead what they were supposed to, Wijnberg was able to increase subscriptions and circulations multi-fold. 

“Most traditional newspapers know that they are dying—ad revenues are reducing, drop in numbers of readers—but they continue to slowly dismantle the news organisation.” They fail to keep the long-term view in mind, Wijnberg adds. To read more about Wijnberg’s philosophy, watch the video below.