History and positioning of dichtbij.nl

1. DichtbijBorrel
Frankfurt, 19 Juni 2013
Growing dichtbij.nl:
Continuous Crossroads

2. The Hyperlocal Highway

3. Let’s take
a look at
DICHTBIJ.NL’s
crossroads
 What is dichtbij.nl?
 History & positioning
 Editorial concept
 Crowds & communities
 Funding & Finance

15. Active in the whole country, with
editorial and commercial teams
in the dark green areas (the rest
to follow)
THE NETHERLANDS DICHTBIJ

16. PART OF TMG

17. 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

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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 20 MILLION PAGEVIEWS
Pageviews
Incidents
Pictures
Regional News
Sports
cars
Going Out
Rest

22. 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)

23. HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ
Dichtbij (2010)

24. HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ
Webregio.nl (2001)
Dichtbij (2010)

25. HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ
Webregio.nl (2001)
Weekly dtd’s (20th century)
Dichtbij (2010)

26. HISTORY OF DICHTBIJ
Webregio.nl (2001)
Weekly dtd’s (20th century)
Dichtbij (2010)
+ ???

27. 45 FULL LIVE PLATFORMS + 100’s SUBs

28. 35 AGGREGATION PLATFORMS
“FIRST STAGE”
(2% of visits)

29. SNEAK PREVIEW

30. APP &
MOBILE:
2468
PLACES
34% Mobile
desktop
mobile

31. APP &
MOBILE:
LOCAL
DEALS

32. 85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

33. 85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

34. 85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

35. 85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

36. 85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

37. 85 DICHTBIJ NEWSPAPERS

38. “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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. EXAMPLE: ARTICLE OF A MEESCHRIJVER
6,450 pageviews
23 comments
Key to success:
“Popular demand”
Well documented
Recognizable
Involved writing

43. 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!

44. 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

45. EXAMPLE: SERIES OF A MEESCHRIJVER
“Tijger” in the city forrest:
Every week one article
25 articles in total
We might publish a book

46. 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

47. EXAMPLE: COMMENTS THAT SOLVE
Museum exposed as
visitor-unfriendly
Museum takes action

48. EXAMPLE: PRAISE FROM THE COMMUNITY
Communitymanager
is part of the
community
4 articles by
meeschrijvers at her
birthday

49. ONLINE & OFFLINE MEETINGS
Community managers
organise events, drinks,
library meetings, etc

50. 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)

51. DICHTBIJ ON TELEGRAAF.NL
The brilliant move: 40% of all
visits come from Telegraaf.nl

52. The Hyperlocal Highway

53. THE MANY CROSSROADS

54. IS DICHTBIJ A SUCCESS?

55. IS DICHTBIJ A SUCCESS?
BUT IS DICHTBIJ A STABLE SUCCESS?
COMPARED TO
1 YEAR AGO: YES!
HARDLY. . .

56. 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

57. 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!