De Stadsbron

A group of Amersfoort citizens founded De Stadsbron in 2018 to focus on "slow news" from and about the city and its surroundings.

One of its founders, Harmen Zijp, explained: "Established media produce fewer and fewer stories that are time-consuming or have only a small target group. This impairs the provision of information and limits the understanding of the world around us. Ultimately, this even comes at the expense of democracy."

Therefore, the team created a platform to publish the stories that the mainstream media fail to cover, not to compete against them but in addition to the existing news.

De Stadsbron is "critical, transparent and open": all of its content is freely accessible and the publication does not rely on advertising for its financial sustainability to "guarantee both the independence and accessibility" of the reporting.

De Stadsbron reduces its costs by, for example, sharing essential tasks, like editing, within the team rather than hiring a full-time editor; its organisation is non-hierarchical. The team comprises "between five and 500 members", according to Zijp.

Around 10 people are very active within the organisation, several dozens contribute occasionally, and another 20 or so are working as "citizen journalists", offering ideas and, sometimes, written content.