The Correspondent, a Dutch news startup looks to make news consumption less polarized, has crowdfunded more than $1 million.
Though it only has a week left to reach its goal of $2.5 million, founder Rob Wijnberg says he wants to provide told NBC News he wants to provide the “antidote” for the way news in the US is created and consumed.
“We have a different take on what news should be about,” Wijnberg told NBC News. “We have a different idea on how news should be made, and how it should be paid for. Those things are the most important differences.”
The Correspondent is a membership-based subscription that already has more than 60,000 members. Wijnberg and his staff’s goal is to have journalists spending more time in conversing with readers and getting more feedback on the newsgathering process.
“We have news channels but not with the 24-hour kind of rhythm to it,” Wijnberg said about the Dutch media. “So our message is even pretty much the same, but it resonates a little bit more because people feel the problem is bigger.”
New York University professor and longtime media critic Jay Rosen has signed on as an ambassador with The Correspondent.
“The Correspondent speaks to you directly,” Rosen said in a video Tweet. “There are no advertisers between you and the journalists. And it’s not interested in grabbing your attention, instead, The Correspondent assumes you will grant your attention to what you consider important.”
