Heidi.news’ recipe for growing its members and expanding into new areas during the pandemic

Flexibility and a focus on readers’ needs helped this Swiss-Francophone startup build credibility and find new paying customers

Photo: Nils Ackermann

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

Heidi.news doubled its number of members and got 10 times as many visitors to its site at the early stages of COVID-19 in Switzerland.

What is Heidi.new

• Heidi.news is an online media news outlet that was launched in Geneva in May 2019. It offers constructive journalism focused on science and health, as well as major stories in Switzerland and from around the world. While most of its content is published in French — mainly to serve the 1.5 million Swiss Francophone population — it also publishes certain content in English to cater to the professional science and health communities based in Geneva.
• The team is currently made up of 19 people. It employs 12 journalists, three interns and four people…