Welcome to the new EUobserver

Hello there. If you’re reading this, we’ve successfully managed to transfer over to our new home. I’ll tell you, it was not easy.

EUobserver has be en around since the year 2000, publishing over 70,000 articles since its inception as one of the first EU-focused news publishers on earth – and certainly online.

Over the decades (yes, decades) our humble site has carved out a unique niche in the Brussels media landscape, not only operating as a non-profit, but also with a particular view on the EU. A view that emphasises the human and humane angle of EU policy, the stories less-covered, and takes the voices of civil society seriously.

In fact, we believe our role is to be a kind of two-way informational bridge between civil society – representing groups of people with common interests – and policy-makers. 

EUobserver has also uncovered countless stories through dedicated investigative work by our highly-experienced journalists. Our pan-European reporting has been used as a basis of stories published by some of the most influential news publications in the world. We also co-publish investigative reporting from some of the most influential and thorough partners, like Investigate Europe, Lighthouse Reports, DeSmog and many others.

Independence

We’ve always strived to be fiercely independent, not only of outside influence from advertisers, industries and politics, but also financially – first of all, by creating one of the first membership programmes in EU media, but also by consciously not taking core funding from EU institutions. 

The new website is the next step in this evolution. And also it looks pretty good, if I may say so.

At the moment, we rely on foundations, advertising and memberships for our income. The goal of the new website is to become self-sustaining through primarily memberships, both from individuals and from institutions.

As other great publications have shown, it’s possible to provide enough value to readers that they’re willing to pay for being a part of it. Look at Correctiv in Germany, Mediapart in France, Tortoise Media in the UK and Follow the Money in the Netherlands (but now also in Brussels). 

Today, we’re introducing a few new membership tiers – at a lower price. The goal is to use the new membership income to invest into more journalism on more topics, which will then provide even more value for our readers. 

We’re also adding a new membership tier for people under 25 for just €1 per month, because we believe it’s important for young people to stay informed on the EU, affordably. Especially with the European Parliament elections less than two months away.

You are not a news consumer

At EUobserver we’ve always tried to value your time by being as concise as possible in our reporting and our newsletter. 

The new website is also a reflection of this (and a dream come true for me as a publisher).

If you’d be so inclined, you could navigate everything on the website just using the filters in the Latest News section on the website. For example, if you’re only interested in Investigations that have to do with Ukraine, you can select these filters in the drop-down menus to only see the articles fitting this interest.

The reason behind this is that most news sites have become way too cluttered in a quest for trying to highlight every ‘important’ story in every single category – thereby making choices for readers on what they should think is important. 

We believe in our readers’ ability to discern what’s important for them. So we’re giving you the choice of what you see. It’s an experiment in shifting away from the idea of readers as news ‘consumers’ to the idea of readers as news *generators*, an idea recently put forward by journalist Ezra Klein.

Not that we ask you to write the news (although with our new comment feature you can share your thoughts and tips as a supporting member), but that your choices matter. If you choose to spend time on our website, you’re also choosing to not spend that time on a social media giant. You’re sending a signal to society that you value quality journalism above something else. 

And that’s important. Your choices matter. They matter for our continued existence and growth, but also for the support that allows for the production of valuable journalism.

Features galore

The website will support this idea with a few more experimental features that will allow more flexibility for members to choose how you receive articles: i.e. if you only want to get updates about Rule of Law, via Whatsapp, at the end of the day. This option is still in the works, but should be coming pretty soon. 

Supporting members also will have the possibility to share gift articles with friends (through the little gift icon on article pages). 

And finally we’ve also re-introduced the Ticker on the homepage, which is where we share links to stories and news from across the web that we (and hopefully you) think are interesting – even if they’re published by ‘competitors’.

Speaking of competitors, I’m proud to say that in a ranking of the most influential publications in the EU, EUobserver is the only independent publisher left – and moving up the ladder. We’re not owned by another corporation or private equity firm, we can’t make a profit, which means that all our income flows into journalism, and we can’t be bought or sold, even if we wanted to. 

The new website is an investment in EUobserver’s future, one I’m both proud and scared to be responsible for. 

Proud because I believe in our mission and that our coverage matters. Scared because founder Lisbeth Kirk trusted me with the role of publisher, and I do not want to let her legacy down – I have tremendous respect for the publication she’s built and maintained over almost 25 years. 

Then again, we have the best possible people to do this. Our editorial department is staffed exclusively by incredibly knowledgeable, devoted and kind individuals. Our sales department understands perfectly from whom we do and don’t want to take money. Together with you, our readers, we have the chance to build something special.

The new website was partially made possible by generous support from our core funders; Adessium Foundation, Schöpflin Stiftung and Isocrates Foundation. We worked together with the developers who built the Eurovision voting infrastructure – it’s slightly overpowered for our humble needs, but it also means the website is extremely fast and built towards the future. 

Expect a lot of new stuff from us in the future. We’ll be releasing a very intricate and hopefully accurate Poll of Polls for the upcoming EU elections soon. We’ll keep publishing high quality investigations and reporting, both by ourselves and a group of dedicated freelance journalists across Europe and the globe. And we have a couple of exciting new sections in the works, which we’ll all unveil in due time. 

For anyone who has been used to reading us over the years, first of all thank you, and second, the new website will require some adjustments – but I’m sure you’ll adapt quite easily. And feel free to get in touch with me if you have any comments, requests or improvements you’d like to share.

And to all of you still to read our website and get to know us, thank you for being here. Thank you for spending time with us, thank you for supporting us and thank you for caring about the journalism we produce. 

With the upcoming elections in the US, UK and EU, turmoil in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, economic uncertainty and a necessary green transition, there has never been a more important time to read and support quality journalism. 

We're also giving away 50% off forever to 1,000 new members – use the code NEWEUOBS in the updated checkout.