Journalism goes start-up

In Düsseldorf, journalists are setting out to finance a news portal with the help of a crowdfunding campaign. They are not the only ones. If such projects succeed in the long term, it would be a great sign for the industry, which is often considered dusty.

Hans Onkelbach, Christian Herrendorf, Andreas Endermann and Boris Bartels still have some time to collect enough money for their new project. They have already received a little more than 29,500 euros via Startnext by mid-April. The goal is to raise 40,000 euros by May 10 so that they can get started. If things continue at the current pace, the founders of "VierNull" should easily reach their goal.

The campaign is just the beginning of a major goal: they want to offer a new kind of journalism for Düsseldorf. After all, reporting in the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia has long been dominated by a single publishing house. Düsseldorf is the undisputed territory of the Rheinische Post (RP). Although there is still a tabloid newspaper belonging to the Dumont publishing house, the Express, and the BILD also reports on Düsseldorf, the Neue Rhein Zeitung (NRZ) and Westdeutsche Zeitung (WZ), which are also published in the state capital, have long since received their material from the RP.

RUMS, KATAPULT, VierNull: They all want to turn local journalism upside down

The founders of VierNull are not the only ones who have discovered crowdfunding as a method to finance journalism. In Münster, for example, the magazine RUMS has been launched and the magazine KATAPULT is currently tinkering with a regional edition for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. There are only three regional newspapers in the state, and they have precisely defined their territories. Just like VierNull in Düsseldorf, KATAPULT wants to expand the media landscape. The magazine has already raised over 26,000 euros. If it manages the 57,000 euro mark it wants to put also in small cities own local expenditures on the legs.

VierNull, on the other hand, is focusing only on Düsseldorf. "We want to strengthen the diversity of opinion in our city," says founder and photographer Andreas Endermann. To do so, they want to approach their business differently than most classic local newspapers. "In recent years, local journalism has become less and less fun, you just rush from deadline to deadline, you don't have time to get to the bottom of things."

VierNull wants to offer rested stories, topics that require longer research. They don't want to offer the classic day-to-day business with lots of small reports about accidents or other local events. They plan one to two big stories per day for now. In addition, there will be a newsletter and a short evening overview of the news of the day. They have already published the first large text of this kind on their website in order to convince more Düsseldorfers of their project. It is a story about life and death, the fight of a Düsseldorf woman against a bone marrow disease and her husband's fight against cancer.

"We want to strengthen the diversity of opinion in our city"

VierNull founder and photographer Andreas Endermann.

What VierNull is up to sounds like something many journalists probably dream of: because, especially in the local area, scheduling long investigations rarely works out. But there are reasons why it rarely works: The financial pressure that publishers are under is high. Fewer and fewer editors have to fill several pages a day. As a result, it's often a matter of mass instead of class. So the VierNull project in the state capital could show that things can be done differently - and make money in the process.

"Many print media fail to transfer their subscription models to digital," believes photographer and co-founder Andreas Endermann. But VierNull doesn't really want to do things differently. There are also plans for various subscription models, be it monthly or yearly. An annual membership costs 96 euros, and a monthly subscription costs eight euros. Who would like, can pay also more as a promoter. In order to bind readers, the founders want to communicate more strongly with their community. However, it is not yet clear exactly what this will look like. There are role models. The online magazine Krautreporter, for example, which is also crowdfunded, regularly asks its readers what stories the journalists should research next. That could also be a way forward for VierNull. But is that enough innovation for a local magazine?

VierNull wants to completely reinvest the money it collects

At least Endermann is not worried about demand. According to a specially commissioned market study, more than 50 percent of those surveyed could imagine paying for the magazine, says Endermann. All the money they take in they want to reinvest completely, for example to finance more authors, perhaps also to focus on video and podcast formats in the future.

"We are not personally financially dependent on the project, but we are aiming for VierNull to be profitable soon," says Endermann. That at least gives the founders time to continue building their startup. However, the four cannot imagine an investor getting involved. They also rule out classic advertisements. "We rely on healthy growth, and we don't want any large outside investors to maintain our independence," says Endermann.