Four weeks of SpitsNieuws
Dutch free daily Spits merged their website in the beginning of April with NieuwNieuws. This last website is owned by News Media, a 40% subsidiary of Telegraaf Media Group, owner of Spits and publisher of De Telegraaf, the best-read newspaper in the Netherlands.
News Media is mostly know for ’shock blog’ GeenStijl, a website with a rather unorthodox way of approaching the news. Comments and news are often mixed up, while the level of abuse in the users’ comments is quite high. GeenStijl is notorious for its campaigns on certain issues, personal attacks included.
NieuwNieuws was always more news-oriented although it shared many of its users with GeenStijl.
The merger was meant to result in increased traffic on the new combined Spits / NieuwNieuws website SpitsNieuws. The website indeed succeeded in much more visitors than before.
The tone of voice in the comments is still quite close to the old NieuwNieuws. It’s often suggested that people should be hung, shot, bombed, cut in pieces, thrown off from high building etc. Most of the abuse, however, is directed at other users. Success (page views) apparently comes at a price.