DutchNews.nl,
Monday 28 April 2014
 |
| How it works: a still from the promotional film for the new service |
A new Dutch media platform launches on Monday offering individual articles from around 40 Dutch newspapers and magazines for a small fee.
Blendle
aims to provide extra revenue for newspapers who are faced with falling
circulations as more people turn to reading the news online. Only around 50% of
Dutch households still have a daily paper.
The
publisher will set the price of each article and get 70%. Blendle will earn 30%
of the fee each time an item is read. Most articles are priced at between 10
cents and 25 cents and there is a money-back guarantee if you don't like what
you've ordered.
iTunes
So far,
20,000 people have signed up to use the service which was described by the
Financial Times as being like the 'iTunes of journalism'.
The
project, the brainchild of former journalists Alexander Klöpping and Marten
Blankesteijn, who are both 27, is partly funded by a government initiative to ensure
the diversity of the Dutch press.
'In the
same way as we are no longer prepared to buy an entire CD for one number, we no
longer want to buy a newspaper for one article,' Klöpping said, ahead of
Monday's formal launch.
Some 70
cents of every euro spent since the soft launch several months ago came from
someone under the age of 40.'We've had a lot of reaction from young people who
have never paid for journalism but have now spent tens of euros on articles,'
Blankesteijn said.
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