


	Ifra XMA Cross Media Awards Projects





	Company: Wegener Dagbladen Multimedia bv
	Project name: Dorpspleinen (Dutch)

	General information about the publication

	In November 1903, Johan (J. F.) Wegener started a newspaper and advertiser in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands: the forerunner to the Apeldoornse Courant. This small, local publisher would grow into the leading media group that it is today. Royal Wegener NV is located in Apeldoorn and is registered at Euronext. Every day, Wegener delivers 0.9 million newspapers to its readers in a sizeable area of the Netherlands. Each week, Wegener turns out more than 7 million newspapers and free door-to-door papers. In addition, Wegener also develops and operates Internet products and services. Furthermore, Wegener provides graphics products and services. Wegener’s regional newspapers cover the vast majority of the Netherlands. They are published in various regions, from the North Sea coast all the way to the German border. Total circulation is around 869.254 copies that are read by 2,6 million consumers. The Wegener newspapers have a long tradition in the regions. Some titles have even been around for more than a century. They are characterised by strong reader loyalty and a large readership. Wegener’s regional newspapers and their daily circulation:  Brabants Dagblad 137 746  BN/DeStem 125 532  De Gelderlander 165 547  De Stentor 142 405  De Twentsche Courant Tubantia 124 621  Eindhovens Dagblad 114 213  Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant 58 190 Group office visiting address: Koninklijke Wegener NV Laan van Westenenk 4 7336 AZ Apeldoorn The Netherlands Group office postal address: P.O. Box 26 7300 HB Apeldoorn The Netherlands Contact Martha Riemsma Tel: + 31 55 5388749

	Project description

	Village Squares www.dorpspleinen.nl

	The basic idea of our project

	Business goal: First, to provide and to receive very specific regional news content from inhabitants of the Netherlands, starting with the Twente region. Second, to offer advertisers a platform on which they can specifically target customers in their business area of interest. The rest of the information is also given in the Pdf file uploaded at the image section. The “Stads- en Dorpspleinen” (city and village squares) are a new compilation of websites where the citizens of the Tubantia-area can publish their own news in an easy way. Every village or city has its corresponding own square where visitors can upload their own news, pictures and videos twenty-four hours a day. They can do this in just a few easy mouse clicks. To prevent abuse an operator monitors the squares. The operators also stimulate discussion by putting interactive polls on the websites. On the website a visitor will find the news of co-occupants, but also, separately, the news about their region that is published in the newspaper. To sum it up, they can find all the news that is relevant to them. Since October 2006 every region of Twente has its own corresponding square. In the meanwhile 170,000 unique visitors visit the websites each month. This amount is still rising. To compare: the area holds 200,000 addresses and 600,000 inhabitants. The amount of uploaded messages is steadily growing in number. Every day users upload between 100 and 200 messages in text or image configuration. Daily, on average, ten to twenty uploaded messages lead to a printed article in the newspaper. In the meantime advertisers also found their way to the city and village squares. Local businesses can use a specially developed application that runs on their own PC to create and place an advertisement on the city or village square(s) of selection. The local greengrocer has the opportunity to direct attention towards his apples on sale the one day and his grapes on the other. A copy of every advertisement is printed in the local newspaper once a week. The advertisement is generated automatically by the application. The amount of advertisers is growing rapidly since the introduction of the application. Advertisers, like the local barber or restaurant, who quitted advertising in the newspaper because of relatively high prizes, are finding their way back to Wegener. By the end of 2007 the city and village squares are expected to be profitable. This successful concept will be unfolded in other parts in the Netherlands in the fall of 2007.

	Used Media Channels


	Newspaper		Mobile Services

	Online		Web-TV / Video

The Implementation

The city squares is a concept that is developed by a team that consisted of people from business development, ICT-Media, and employees of the Twentse Courant Tubantia (journalists, commercial management, circulation management). The concept is further developed and facilitated by the multimedia department of the Twentse Courant Tubantia.
At the moment a specialised team at the Twentse Courant Tubantia takes further care of development.
The current ownership is in the hands of the newspaper's general multimedia department.
The rest of the implementation part is explained in the PDF file uploaded at the image section.
The rest of the implementation part is explained in the PDF file uploaded at the image section.
1) The world wide web: www.dorpspleinen.nl. All content is placed on this website.
2) The Newspaper: De Twentsche Courant Tubantia. User generated content possessing a high news value is also printed in the local newspaper. It also works vice versa, the website also shows news that is originally written for the local newspaper.
3) Short text messages: SMS voting for the “village square awards” (a contest where upcoming bands could upload a video clip to win a place to perform in a festival with established bands).

Image(s)

IFRA XMA Cross Media Awards 2007.pdf (510 KB)

Links

Http://www.dorpspleinen.nl
Http://www.stadspleinen.nl
http://www.enschede.tctubantia.nl/
http://www.haaksbergen.tctubantia.nl/

Project results

Since October 2006 every region of Twente has its own corresponding square. In the meanwhile 170,000 unique visitors (177,000 in may) visit the websites each month. This amount is still rising. To compare: the area holds 200,000 addresses and 600,000 inhabitants. The amount of uploaded messages is steadily growing in number. Every day users upload between 100 and 200 messages in text or image configuration. Daily, on average, ten to twenty uploaded messages lead to a printed article in the newspaper.