With our summer holidays coming up, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on the past year and share some news about the coming one.
A little more than a year ago, more on a lark than out of serious expectation, I applied for the position of editor-in-chief at EUobserver.
I wasn’t expecting much, given my — at best — amateur grasp of EU affairs. But for some mysterious reason, EUobserver’s founder Lisbeth Kirk gave me her trust and offered me the job.
A year onwards, I couldn’t be happier with how things have unfolded.
First of all, I’ve had the privilege of working with a team of extremely talented and experienced journalists and editors — who moreover had the grace to deal with my relative ignorance with patience and kindness.
Day after day, they work tirelessly in reporting on the stuff that really matters: rule of law, migration, climate change, economics, labour, foreign affairs and the intricacies and complications of the Brussels machinery.
Second, we’ve made a bunch of bigger and smaller changes to our reporting. Instead of trying to cover everything with a team a fraction of the size of our counterparts, we focused more on what we know and care about.
This resulted in publishing less, but better (in my opinion) pieces on the site. We’re taking more time to report, more time to edit and more time to provide context for those who don’t follow everything.
And this shows. Visitors to our website increased significantly, more people are signing up for paid memberships that are vital for our existence and more organisations are reaching out to work with us.
Third, and finally, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
I wanted to work for EUobserver because of its potential. The outlet has deservedly built respect over the past two decades, breaking important stories and often being the first to spot trends or issues that later rise to the mainstream.
It made its name as more humanistic, more ethical source of reporting on the EU — not cozying up either to industry or politicians, but remaining fiercely independent, even through rough patches that could have sunk our small non-profit.
In the next year, expect to see more of this.
We have big plans that seem to be coming together, and will allow us to expand, improve and ultimately become the premier source of public service journalism in the EU (and beyond).
We’re working on a new website, with more features for members, more new sections covering under-reported issues and large investigative projects.
Next year is going to be crucial.
Not only with regards to covering an upcoming EU election, an ongoing war and a more noticeable climate emergency, but also to shape up our memberships-based business model to allow for sustainable income.
Your support matters. Not only individually, but also in reaching out to your organisation for a group membership or other partnerships.
We don’t ask this lightly, as we realise externalities might affect budgets, but at the same time, it’s in times like these that the work our journalists do is the most important.
But now, in August, we take a breather to prepare for this. The hubbub in Brussels has died down, out-of-office emails abound, and we need to take a little break.
The coming weeks, we’ll be publishing on a summer schedule, with slightly less articles, a little later in the day.
And to you, dear reader, thank you for being here, thank you for your support, and thank you for sticking with us. I’m looking forward to all that’s coming.
