13 votes

“I felt like it was a betrayal, and we had raised funds on a false pretense”: The Correspondent’s first US employee speaks out

5 comments

  1. bbvnvlt
    (edited )
    Link
    I am a (happy) member of the Dutch Correspondent, have been from the start (the crowdfunding here in the Netherlands. I also thought they were setting up a U.S. sister organization. Disappointing...

    I am a (happy) member of the Dutch Correspondent, have been from the start (the crowdfunding here in the Netherlands. I also thought they were setting up a U.S. sister organization. Disappointing and confusing...

    edit/addition:

    Thinking about it for a few minutes, the whole thing surprises me even more. De Correspondent has grown into a healthy and sustainable business here. And here, they also needed to build infrastructure (website/editing systems) and in the U.S. they'd have the advantage that globally oriented stories that are already being produced would only need to be translated into English.

    The whole thing stands or falls with enough members/subscribers, which the crowdfund seems to have provided. I expected them to transplant their model. I don't see why what is sustainable here wouldn't be just as sustainable over there... :-/

    2 votes
  2. [3]
    patience_limited
    Link
    News about the news, again. This is deeply disappointing. I, like others, genuinely thought that De Correspondent would include at least some U.S. news without the conventional institutional...

    News about the news, again. This is deeply disappointing. I, like others, genuinely thought that De Correspondent would include at least some U.S. news without the conventional institutional filters and rapid drumbeat of current sources.

    1 vote
    1. Neverland
      Link Parent
      Well this sucks. I had posted a topic about their coming to the USA long ago and am now really disappointed.

      Well this sucks. I had posted a topic about their coming to the USA long ago and am now really disappointed.

      1 vote
    2. clerical_terrors
      Link Parent
      Indeed this is very disappointing and unprofessional from them. And it really hurts their credibility going forward.

      Indeed this is very disappointing and unprofessional from them. And it really hurts their credibility going forward.

  3. Lawrencium265
    Link
    It's pretty clear from reading their "founding principles" that it was always intended to be a money grab to funnel funds back into their seperate design and marketing business....

    It's pretty clear from reading their "founding principles" that it was always intended to be a money grab to funnel funds back into their seperate design and marketing business.

    https://thecorrespondent.com

    The end goal is to maximize shareholder profit by attracting as much attention as possible.

    At The Correspondent, our goal is to serve our members, maximizing trust instead of financial gains. That’s why we do not maximize shareholder return, limiting dividends to 5 percent of revenue.

    They can just inflate the "advertising budget" and pocket all the revenue that way.