“Right now online has the reach and paper the impact—in 5 years online has both”
VN magazine’s web editor Tim de Gier on publishing
Tim de Gier (1983) is the web editor of VN, the largest Dutch progressive news weekly, and we talked to him about the future of news on print and beyond.
You don’t need to be an avid news reader to understand that societies have a lot to gain from people who question the powers that be and describe what’s changing in the world. A hundred years ago, newspapers and magazines used to be the only game in town. Radio and television were added, but developed their distinct form of news distribution and served a different context. Internet and the web are the first full-frontal attack on the print media and it’s swim or sink for many existing publishers.
“Right now, articles in respected print media still carry a lot of weight,” says Tim, “but within 5 years online will not only be the medium with more reach but with a larger impact on society too. The web has a lot going for it compared to print: cheaper and faster distribution, easier to share and more flexible. Decision makers probably still read print media now, but they will follow the younger generation in reading online more rapidly than you would expect. A big chunk of the impact print has, is based on its carefully cultivated brands: The New York Times, The Guardian, die Zeit and the Dutch Volkskrant don’t have the biggest circulation of all news media anymore, but they’re still on the desks in every major organisation. But their influence by reputation is being replaced by the esteem new writers and publications get from the social sharing of their work. People always prefer listening to people they know and the web enables writers to directly contact their audience.”
A new distribution platform offers new tools for journalists and the people who know how to use those best have a big advantage. “Every journalist is a geek in her own field, but they need to become a computer nerd too,” according to Tim. “It’s necessary to know the strengths and limitations of your distribution platform. Nate Silver and Felix Salmon might not be the absolute best journalists around, but they know how to use web tools and reach their audience. The savvier writers and publications will be able to increase their readership and leave others behind in the dust. Ezra Klein was a good journalist in a traditional way and found Twitter. After that he found blogging. And now he wants to do it all.”
In recent years, a much discussed topic has been the paywalls some publications have set-up around their work. Tim frames web publishing as ‘one big battle for attention’: “There are a ton of articles out there about Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and why should I read yours? As soon as you put up a paywall, you pick a fight with the strength of the web: sharing information by clicking from link to link. You practically remove yourself from the public discourse. You must have incredibly good or incredibly valuable information to make a paywall work, or you’ll whither.”
Examples of interesting web publications are, according to Tim, Vox Media in the United States, with their super secret but (according to employees) bafflingly brilliant publishing system called Chorus. And of course: Buzzfeed. Tim: “Where will it stop? Can you deliver all the information people want (and need) if you wrap it in listicles?” Also on his list: Gawker Media. “Oh my, how they try to keep their audience engaged. They first gave all the readers their own site and now they moved all the replies to those pages.” He continues: “Quartz is also nice, the sub-site launched by The Atlantic. They want their role in the readers’ life by offering content in the heartbeat of daily life. And of course the Dutch Correspondent, for moving beyond genres. They write pieces that don’t fit anywhere else.”
Make no mistake though, quality is still important and you won’t set the world on fire with just computer nerds. “It’s easier to become a reasonably good nerd than become a reasonably good writer,” Tim beliefs.
Bruns & Niks is a design agency based in Amsterdam and with clients all over the world. We designed the new website of VN.
This interview with Tim is part of our Client Conversations series. Instead of sharing the specific design work we do, we highlight the work of our clients.
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