From goodbyes to growth: how Apache increased its membership base despite budget cuts and COVID-19

The pandemic arrived just a few months after this Belgian co-operative’s staff and budgets were downsized. But that didn’t stop it growing its paying readership by 20%.

This case study is part of Resilience Reports, a series from the European Journalism Centre about how news organisations across Europe are adjusting their daily operations and business strategies as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

In a nutshell

A weekly COVID-19 newsletter and a care homes investigation were just some of the ways that helped Apache attract more members in five months than it did the whole of 2019.

What is Apache?

• Apache is an online reader-funded news site offering investigative journalism, in-depth features, explainers, and beat reporting. It was founded in October 2009 by a group of five journalists, many of whom were laid off from national newspapers during the 2008 financial crisis. Based in Antwerp, Belgium, articles are written in Flemish for a Belgian audience.
• Today, Apache has five full-time journalists (three of whom were the…