Unless your name is Houellebecq, readers are generally not interested in what you say. They have hundreds of emails waiting, Facebook friends are begging for their attention, and they must check their twitter mentions every ten seconds. So it’s of the utmost importance to get their attention right when they start reading.

Continue reading Capturing readers’ attention by referring to something greater than you

In about fifteen minutes I’m hopping on a plane to New York. Without a laptop. Yeah! Time for some REAL adventures. Edial Dekker and I didn’t book a hotel or anything, we’ll just see what happens. I’m blogging the whole experience in this post. Without a laptop, yet with an iPhone.

Continue reading Going to New York Without a Laptop

Last June, I was facing a potential boring Sunday evening. So I twittered whether anyone knew an inspiring, rock ‘n’ rollish or just tough journalism movie. Man, I received a whole lotta great tips from my fellow twitter users. As a blogger at a newspaper, I loved the blogger-versus-journalists references in State of Play, dreamed of an All the President’s Men scenario and sang along with Tiny Dancer when watching…

Continue reading 16 Movies for Journalists, the Follow Up

It was 2002, I was in the fourth year of high school. Every Friday night I went to the movie store of my hometown. Mobster movies were my thing. The Godfather trilogy was only 5 euros per episode. I bought all the VHS tapes. Same goes for The Last Don, Blow and Donnie Brasco. I enjoyed all those movies and was proud of my collection.

Yet at the same time…

Continue reading Should I give my book collection away?

For those of you who don’t know me: I’m a blogger at a Dutch quality newspaper. Last week I went to see State of Play, a movie about a grumpy old reporter who investigates a billion dollar scandal. He gets some help from a newspaper blogger. The funny situations – ‘I don’t have an opinion, maybe I should read some blogs’ – and the ‘damn fine reporting’ inspired me. They…

Continue reading 24 must-see movies for journalists (and 3 series)

My modest career achievements are a direct result of blogging. Ever since I started Spotlight Effect in October 2006, blogging gave me one great opportunity after another. From traveling the world with geeky rockstars to starting a news blog for my favorite newspaper. So why are my friends, family and I so excited about my first article in print which was published today? I’m a blogger for crying out loud,…

Continue reading Bloggers should ‘drag’ journalists into the eye of the storm

,,What’s the goal of your personal blog?”, I asked on Twitter. Everybody seems to approach their personal blog in a totally different way. Alper Çuğun (@alper) for example, mentioned that he uses his blog as a public CMS. Andrew Block (@andrewblock) defined the goals of his blog four years ago. One Twitter user, Erwin Blom (@erwblo), responded that by I want too much strategy. ,,Blogging is about telling stories and…

Continue reading You’re a writer and strategist at the same time

Hunter S Thompson is a hero of many. The writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the most honest book about the Hell’s Angels appeals to thousands of young journalists. He invented Gonzo Journalism. A style in which the writer became the story. ,,Structure was thrown out of the window, replaced by a shambolic, yet magical, rollercoaster ride of artless hedonism,” as the BBC puts it. How can we reinvent this rocking genre in a digital age?

Continue reading Reinventing Gonzo Journalism in a digital age Part 1

Now that the whole world seems to have adopted services like Twitter and Facebook, I feel it’s time to go back to some old standards. We all want to differentiate from competitors. Some of the techniques that were revolutionary a while ago – and thus helped us to differentiate – are pretty normal now. I think we strike solid gold when we combine new technology with old quality standards.

Continue reading Want to strike gold? Combine new technologies with old quality standards