Eight years ago the Dutch newspaper conglomerate PCM suspended the cross-media internet news site En.nl. Now after eight years it re-launches the site, but now the site is a search for the best Dutch news site.Around the turn of the century in the aftermath of Web 1.0, PCM was searching for a position in the internet landscape. All its newspaper had an internet extension to print, but the newspaper conglomerate had not made any impression with an internet service. In 2000 a special development group was formed independent of all the newspaper titles, which was going to function as a project group electronic publishing, known as PCM Interactive Group. The objective of the group was to offer the print subscribers electronic services and attract new subscribers. The platform was also intended to offer advertisers an electronic environment for advertising.
In 2001 PIM developed the flagship En.nl, a 24/7 news service, which was to be the PCM quality site on internet. The service offered news on internet and later also on mobile. En.nl had an editorial staff. The service became popular and generated many page views; in fact it was the fastest way to see the latest round up of news in convenient bullets. However the service did not have a long life. After four months, the service En.nl and in fact the whole PIM department were abandoned, as it did not bring in money. The then CEO Theo Bouwman spoke the famous last word that internet was no more than a television text service (Teletex) and did not warrant a separate company effort.
Mobile message of En.nl on 9/11.Eight years later the title En.nl has been retrieved from the brand archive and is used for an experimental service. En.nl looks like the former service at first glance. But the new En.nl service is a straight forward newswire feed, in which the readership can participate. It should become a place where people can formulate their ideas about news, news related technology and design and can participate in creating a news site. En.nl should become the online service where you can create, customize, and share your own social network for free in seconds.
The new En.nl has no editorial staff, but has the audience, according to the publisher. Social merit systems and adaptation software have made inroads in the editorial process and on the web sites. “Sites as Digg, Wikipedia, YouTube and Flickr have introduced voting, sorting, aggregation and improving information.” For the time being only news items from the Dutch wire service ANP can be adapted. PCM is aware that users can bring in wrong information, but the company trusts, that other users will correct the information properly. No news items can be added by users, yet.
Although I believe that the service has been launched too early and should have stayed on the drawing board for more clear contours, it will be an interesting news experiment. However the question will be whether they can interest internet users to user the service differently from a news wire and how the new service can for example involve bloggers. I will keep you updates on the progress of En.nl.
Blog posting Number: 1037
Tags: news, newspaper, news service
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