Dutch reader-funded news outlet De Correspondent last week announced that its English-language site The Correspondent, which raised $2.6m ahead of launch, is to close at the end of the month.
Co-founder Ernst-Jan Pfauth told staff in a memo: “When we raised a new round of funding in the summer, we identified three individual worst-case scenarios for The Correspondent. 1) less than 30% of renewals with the founding members, 2) an increase of churn and 3) lower average membership fee.
By the end of October, it became clear all three scenarios had happened at the same time: We fell 3% short of our worst case-renewal target of 30% due to failed payments. We’re seeing an increase in churn, up to 25% for annual members, with many members citing financial problems and the Covid-19 pandemic; We saw that the average membership fee that members pay is lower than anticipated (€43 instead of €70). These three developments led to a projected loss of €900,000 in 2021, against only €1m in revenue.”
Pfauth told readers on the website: “Unfortunately, we were unable to demonstrate the value of The Correspondent’s journalism to a significant enough number of members. With the Covid-19 pandemic dominating headlines non-stop for much of the year, it proved very difficult to offer “unbreaking news” to members in over 140 countries. People want to know from their media source: “Is my kid’s school going to be closed tomorrow and when will I be eligible for a vaccination?” While essential, this is not the kind of journalism we were set up to do. We were focused instead on trans-national issues. We tried, we gave it our all but we didn’t succeed.
“We are very sad to say goodbye to the amazing colleagues who make up The Correspondent, and who have done an absolutely amazing job in a year of global unrest. They were a bright shining light in times of increasingly dark headlines, and we are incredibly proud of the journalism they produced, in collaboration with members. We can’t recommend them highly enough to future employers.”
De Correspondent, based in Amsterdam, was launched in 2013 after raising more than €1m in a crowdfunding campaign in just eight days. The website distinguishes itself by rejecting the daily news cycle and focusing on in-depth and chronological coverage on a topical basis, led by individual correspondents who each focus on specific topics.
