A Dutch startup that describes itself as “iTunes for newspapers” has received €3m (£2.4m) backing from the New York Times Co and German publisher Axel Springer, and plans to launch in a major European country within six months.

Blendle, which launched just six months ago, has changed the way newspaper articles in the Netherlands are consumed by readers: it acts as a digital kiosk, selling individual articles at a cost of 20 cents, from a variety of newspapers and magazines. It will be interesting to see how the Blendle model can work abroad at a time of dwindling print sales.

Blendle: the Dutch online newspaper kiosk Photograph: Screengrab/Blendle

Founders Alexander Klöpping and Marten Blankesteijn, 27-year-old former journalists, wanted paying for a newspaper article to be as easy as downloading an app. “We have been building something the way we wanted to consume news,” Klöpping, who is also a tech journalist appearing on the largest talkshow in the Netherlands and who has made a documentary about Silicon Valley, tells the Guardian.

“We love the long-form and there are magazines that I have never read, but now I can find and read an article from it that may move me. So we’ve noted that Blendle is about discovery and discovering. We want it to be easy to pay for and easy to find articles, especially for younger readers.” It’s his goal to get people reading something they wouldn’t usually.



And with two-thirds of users who are registered through Facebook being under 35, it is little wonder why it has captured the imagination of so many. Blendle has the data to back it up too: it has 130,000 registered users, with a fifth coming back to top up and pay for content.



iTunes of journalism?

It is important to note, that the culture of journalism in the Netherlands is different, and it’s hard to see how it would work in the UK, where newsrooms have moved to digital-first workflow and where much quality news content is already online.

Klöpping explains that “there is a pretty strict boundary between print and web” in the Netherlands. So previously it was not possible to find premium newspaper content online, and although some newspapers have a paywall, it still means you would have to register and subscribe to the whole newspaper, even to read just one article – which can be cumbersome. It also means it’s difficult to share articles on Twitter and Facebook.



Yet with Blendle, users can find every article from every Dutch newspaper on one web app, and pay 20 cents per article with a click. And if you don’t like the article you read, you can get your money back. The aim is that it should be as easy as subscribing for music on Spotify. The online kiosk has contracts with most newspaper and magazine publishers in the Netherlands, and even with the Economist. Publishers keep 70% of the revenue and Blendle takes the remaining 30%.



Klöpping is convinced that this is a way print journalism can be monetised, and is keen to point out that Blendle is “a lab for journalism distribution”. The company, which is based in Utrecht and has a team of 25 people who are mostly developers, aims to experiment. The joint investment by NYT and Axel Springer helps in its international growth plans.



Expansion: going Dutch



Blendle has licensed over 200 fonts, which it says creates the best possible reading experience. Photograph: Blendle

The investment in the startup will surely provide useful data for NYT, at a time of decreasing sales across the print board. Yet what is more interesting is Axel Springer’s involvement, which is a leading digital publishing house in Europe, and publishes German tabloid newspaper Bild. Mathias Döpfner, chief executive of Axel Springer, said in a statement:

“As a publisher we want to convince users to pay for great journalism; also in the digital age. I’m therefore delighted that a European startup is building a platform for paid access to quality journalism that is easy to use. Blendle has the potential to attract young, internet savvy readers.”

Klöpping has big ambitions to expand internationally and said that, “within six months Blendle has been ranking up to launch preferably in a big European country”. Although he couldn’t confirm where the company would go next, he said that the model can only work when the critical mass of the market in each country had been reached, which would mean at least 60% to 70% of the print press in the country would have to sign up to the online platform. This seems ambitious, but with the reputation of it’s new financial backers, things may gain momentum.



Critics may dismiss the entrepreneurial ambitions and point to the fact that the Netherlands is relatively small compared to many other European countries, yet Klöpping is convinced that it can work abroad. He explained that in the rest of Europe, including Germany, France and Spain, journalism is quite similar to the Dutch model, albeit operating on a larger scale.

Klöpping said: “Paywalls are fine if you pay for the majority of the content. But if you want to read just one article, it’s so frustrating. Say if we launched in Germany, that would be interesting as there are a lot of people who would be interested in reading, say more New York Times and Wall Street Journal articles.” This is one to watch.

