De Standaard Podcastfestival is a hit
Covid threw a spanner in the works in 2021, but in 2022 the first edition of the DS Podcastfestival was finally able to happen. The two-day festival took place in Ostend and was a feast for the ears, packed with talks, listening sessions, workshops and live recordings. More than 3,500 podcast enthusiasts signed up to see and hear the most interesting creators from home and abroad at work. Alongside top international stars such as Brian Reed (S-Town) and Connor Ratliff (Dead Eyes) the festival also hosted the cream of the Belgian podcast world. And that didn’t escape the attention of the people behind the Belgian Event Awards: the event at Ostend’s Kursaal won gold in the Business to Consumer category.
Ads & Data chooses cross-platform data strategy
Data can’t be ignored in the advertising world. With the tightening of GDPR legislation and the phasing out of third-party cookies, the importance of logged-in reach and the first-party data that can be collected from it is growing. Ads & Data, the national advertising agency of Mediahuis, Telenet/SBS and Proximus, is eager to better meet the needs of advertisers. Ads & Data’s strategy is based on an online ecosystem in which the data obtained from the media brands of Mediahuis, SBS and VRT are brought together in a central data management platform. One of the key pillars in realising this was the rollout of Ads & Data – consent, whereby people give permission for their data to be collected and profiled for personalised ads on the media of all Ads & Data partners (the publishers and broadcasters Mediahuis, SBS and VRT, and the telecoms partners Telenet and Proximus). The centralised digital ad stack – the set of digital advertising tools – allows Ads & Data to build audiences across all websites. It can also target surfers with personalised advertising across the entire Ads & Data network. This unique cross-platform ecosystem, created from first-party data from publishers, TV broadcasters and telecoms operators, makes Ads & Data a thought leader in the field. It’s the ideal way for advertisers to stay top of mind across the platform and communicate the right message at the right time to an audience that’s relevant to them.
One news site and app for Gazet van Antwerpen and ATV
Gazet van Antwerpen and ATV are the main media brands for news about Antwerp. So it was a logical step for them to join forces to create a single news site and app for and about the city. The two newsrooms continue to operate independently but have combined their regional journalism on one online platform. “It’s important for a news app to explain what’s going on in Antwerp and the world not only through text and photos but also through video and sound,” says Gazet van Antwerpen editor-in-chief Frederik De Swaef. “With our ATV colleagues, we can broadcast live news and enhance background information with news footage. That makes us the number one destination for everyone who wants to know what’s happening in Antwerp.” The partnership with ATV provided a boost in video figures at Gazet van Antwerpen and has had a positive effect on ad sales.
De Standaard asks the big questions
“What keeps you awake at night?” That’s the question that five young journalists from De Standaard asked in the new podcast series Klaarwakker. They each went to peers and experts with a personal dilemma. Their questions: “Should I buy a house or is it better to rent?”, “Do I really want a child?”, “Should I feel guilty about the climate?”, “How safe is it at night?” and “Where do I really feel at home?” In a series of three episodes each, they set out to find answers to these questions. Foreign affairs editor Samira Ataei talked to dozens of young people about what it means to feel at home or not: in a new school, a new neighbourhood, a new workplace or even a new country. Samira emigrated with her parents from Iran to Belgium when she was five. Since her teens, she has been kept awake by wondering “What does it mean to be at home?” .
Voices from court
After more than 80 episodes, De Stemmen van Assisen remains one of our most listened-to podcast series. Was it murder? Or was it an accident? And is the accused in the dock really guilty? Pieter Huybrechts, Marc Klifman and Cedric Lagast, crime journalists at Nieuwsblad, take listeners inside the court of assises. At the beginning of a trial, they explore the files, reconstruct the investigation and tell the story of the accused. Visitors to De Standaard’s Podcastfestival had the chance to get a glimpse of the studio where the series is recorded and sit behind the microphone themselves. The high numbers of listeners point to the success of this true crime podcast.
+PLUS gives readers more
In the autumn, Mediahuis launched +PLUS in Belgium, a new and ground-breaking subscription formula. Subscribers of any of the Flemish Mediahuis titles now had the option of free and unlimited access to Plus articles in all the group’s Flemish titles. Koen Verwee, CEO of Mediahuis België, explains the initiative: “The success of our five Flemish news brands is built on their journalistic quality and diversity. With the new +PLUS formula, we’re giving all our subscribers maximum value for their money: they will never again run into a paywall and so can follow the news, analysis and opinion in all our titles every day.”
Mediahuis used the launch of +PLUS to appeal to new readers as well. New subscribers could join +PLUS for €1 for a month. The reader chose one title in the format that suits their needs: digital every day, print every day or print only at weekends. In addition, they got free access to every Plus article of the four other Flemish Mediahuis titles.
New look for Nieuwsblad app
Research shows that app users read for longer and are quicker to switch to a subscription than website users. That’s why we systematically improve and update our news brands’ apps. In spring 2022 it was the turn of Het Nieuwsblad’s app to get a total makeover. New technology made it faster and more stable, and the design was thoroughly refreshed for a more pleasant reading experience. Readers can now manage their preferences more easily and sign up to read Plus articles. The menu and search screen have been simplified, allowing people to find the information they want more quickly. Finally, journalists now have more opportunities to package and present news in a more convenient way, something that obviously improves usability for readers.
For 10 years, Caroline Van der Cruyssen, Jeroen Van Reeth and their two children have lived barely 800 metres from the 3M factory in Zwijndrecht.Caroline, like many other residents, was told that she had a worrying amount of PFOS in her blood.
Photo Fred Debrock
De Standaard won a Belfius Press Award in the Print and Web category for the dossier ‘The PFOS contamination exposed’ by Jef Poppelmonde, Stijn Cools, Maxie Eckert and Lisa De Bode.
Hyperlocal news goes digital
The Belang van Limburg newsroom have put their all into the digital transformation over the past year and today their work is completely digital-first. During that evolution, one question repeatedly arose: is all their hyperlocal content suited to a digital platform? The Goednieuwskrant was one of the supplements under scrutiny. Many of the team thought it wasn’t possible to find a new digital audience for the local good news stories that always did so well in print. But the opposite turned out to be true. The supplement successfully went digital, proving that there’s a bright digital future for hyperlocal regional journalism too.
