
‘With signature journalism, we secure our future’
Creating the right mix
GerBen, you’re Strategy Director Newsroom at Mediahuis group. Titles don’t get much better. What exactly does your role entail?
“[Laughing] Just to be clear, I didn’t come up with the title myself. I plan the newsrooms of the future. It’s a broad mission, but for me, our journalism is at the core. First and foremost, it’s about signature journalism and maintaining our diversity. It’s great to work for a company that believes in our distinct brands. We want to collaborate more in terms of technology and organisational processes, but when it comes to content, we want our brands to remain as unique as possible.”
Signature journalism as the foundation for the future – that sounds good. But how do you put that promise into practice?
“By asking ourselves the right questions. How can we create journalism that’s better than the competition? How can we be unique? To succeed, you need to know your DNA. We’ve spent years thinking about this for our print publications, but in the digital world, we’re not as far advanced. To be successful digitally, you don’t need 200 stories a day. But which 10 or 20 stories make the difference?
“Signature journalism is about the right mix of topics, delivered in the right form and format. Take our homepages: are they just a random collection of stories, or is there a strategy behind them? If you were to relaunch Het Belang van Limburg today as a purely digital brand, would you create exactly what exists now? Or would you adjust the mix? Newsrooms need to think about this. Are we reaching the right digital audience? What does the data tell us? It’s a difficult exercise, but done well, it naturally leads to a unique signature.”
“Signature journalism requires a lot of work, but it’s the only way to create a unique brand”
Are there things we should stop doing to safeguard our uniqueness?
“Absolutely. I don’t believe we can make a difference in the future with just breaking news. No one is going to pay for pure news reports anymore; those are available for free everywhere. We need to focus on unique stories and the right mix. According to media analyst Thomas Baekdal, this approach naturally creates more room for distinctive journalism.
“We should also invest more in video and audio, which our online audience increasingly demands. Sometimes, this means stopping certain things. Take a critical look at your site’s menu structure. If something is buried three clicks deep, is it still worth your energy?”

You mention Baekdal. What stands out to me is that he increasingly emphasises the importance of the brand and journalistic diversity. That’s hopeful, isn’t it?
“Certainly. Baekdal says that a strong brand contributes to trust in our journalism. He sees this in stark contrast to a world where fake news and AI are running rampant. A news title is built on solid foundations, has a clear profile and has people behind it. Some think that a brand has become unimportant, but the opposite is true.
“[Enthusiastically] We need to embrace and emphasise the power of our diversity even more. The core of our product and our distinguishing ability should be at the centre. We don’t all need a separate app or six different tools to create online maps. Content will make the difference. Just look at Spotify. The real success comes from Taylor Swift, Chopin and everything in between, not the technology.”

Journalism is not a cookie factory
I know you’re critical of artificial intelligence, yet you’re leading a major project on its implementation in our newsrooms. How do you reconcile that?
“AI can help us keep our model afloat by improving and making our processes more efficient. But it can also help translate or transform our journalism into audio and video. AI will undoubtedly mean a lot for us, and we shouldn’t be afraid of it. It won’t replace journalism.
“For example, what AI will never be able to do is be there live [he gestures with his arms]. Do you see an AI tool going out to interview people or telling stories where our audience can recognise themselves? No, of course not. Journalists will retain that role.”
“Content will make the difference. Just like Taylor Swift and Chopin make Spotify’s success”
Many journalists remain sceptical. AI is intriguing but it also raises concerns.
“Journalists are not usually frontrunners, we have to admit that. We like to stick to what we know; we just want to tell stories. That mindset needs to shift, but it won’t happen overnight. It helps if we integrate AI tools that support our journalism into our daily workflows. We need to embed them in CUE [Mediahuis’ new editorial system]. To successfully implement AI, we must make it part of our creative process.”
We are, of course, journalists, and we have an ethical code that we must adhere to.
“That goes without saying, we’re not a cookie factory. A person – preferably the original creator – must always be the last in line when we produce content. Actually, that’s the only thing a journalist should focus on: the content of their unique story. Where and how it’s played out, that’s not something they should lose sleep over.”

More Instagram than newspaper
Should we dare to be more disruptive? And stop using paper?
“I don’t think so. As long as there’s an audience for the printed newspaper and we can still deliver that product, why would we stop? Distribution issues, though, could throw a spanner in the works. We’ve already noticed that in Belgium, and there’s a similar risk in the Netherlands. Last year, I spent a night delivering newspapers with a couple in West Friesland. They can barely find replacements when they want to take a week off. Our distribution is vulnerable. So, we really need to ensure that our print readers transition to digital as quickly as possible.”
“Journalists are usually not frontrunners. We will need to adjust that mindset”
Agreed, but then comes the million-dollar question: how are we going to do that?
“We’re underestimating our digital newspapers. We can still rely on loyal readers and long reading times. The e-paper still has a good while ahead of it. In addition, we’re working on new digital bundles, the bundle of the future. This will go live this year, and will be a mix with modern design, more Instagram than newspaper. It offers a lot of opportunities, especially to better use and reuse our extensive long-tail content.
“Readers will be able to create their own story mix and easily share it. You could end up viewing your neighbour’s, your mayor’s or even the minister’s weekly bundle. A lot of things we publish now are only visible for a few hours on the homepage, and then they disappear from sight. We make it to forget it. It’s a shame, because it means we’re chasing our own tail. We need to do better. The goal is for a subscriber to stay with us as long as possible. Attention time is crucial: the more and longer a reader engages, the more they’ll be willing to pay for our journalism.”

Attention time is important, no one would argue with that, but is it enough to retain a subscriber?
“Certainly not; we need more. We can’t just focus on that time, but rather on whether that time is well spent. The ambition is for a subscriber to visit every day, and for that to happen, they must get value for their money. If you only use Netflix once a month, you won’t keep paying for that expensive subscription.
“We’re conducting a study with the universities of Amsterdam and Leuven. Time can be measured precisely, but the central question of the study is whether our stories actually add something to the reader’s life. Did the news truly have value? And can we come up with a model to make that measurable?”
“The ambition is for a subscriber to visit every day, and for that to happen, they must get value for their money”
Very interesting. Do you see other revenue models emerging, outside of our own platforms?
“That’s a tough question. Dependence on others, like Google or Meta, is risky. On the other hand, it’s hard for us to retreat to an island. We need external platforms for our branding, for instance. A new audience no longer gets to know us through the printed newspaper on the kitchen table, but through other platforms. Spotify is a great place to get to know us, through our podcasts.”
In Flanders, we have a popular TV chef, Piet Huysentruyt, who always ends his show with the question: ‘What did we learn today?’ Can you summarise our conversation in three points?
“[Looks surprised] Oh, that’s a tough one! But OK, I’ll give it a try. One: we need to clearly define the right mix. First the mix, then the clicks. Two: we shouldn’t be afraid of AI. It should make us better than we already are. And three: if we do this right, we’ll secure our future. I firmly believe that people have a need for strong journalism and that they’re willing to pay for it.”