Guido den Aantrekker is not at all concerned with juice channels like Yvonne Coldeweijer’s. “Yes, that’s not journalism, is it? They don’t matter to me either,” says Story’s editor-in-chief.
After all these years, Story boss Guido den Aantrekker still expects juice channels like Yvonne Coldeweijer’s to be something temporary. “They will eventually implode again,” he says. The juice channels will undoubtedly say the same about the circulation figures of his gossip magazine, but according to Guido that is nonsense. He thinks journalism wins.
Slow news
Yvonne and her juice colleagues find old gossip media slow. For example, Shownieuws is invariably called Slownieuws by Juice Channel. Guido himself sees it differently. He says in the podcast from Mischa Blok: “Well, they are not faster in principle. Yes, they are faster, but that is for a reason: they want to be first.”
He continues: “Look, I think a juice channel – and there are many more than just Yvonne’s – really just a distribution center of tips. We also receive tips throughout the day. We have a telephone number in the magazine, we have an e-mail address. You get tips all day.”
Three days
For Guido, most news on the juice channels are old news. “Many of the tips that the juice channels bring as so-called scoops have been in our inbox for three days now. This is being worked on by people from our team. But if you can’t substantiate such a tip… If it affects people’s personal sphere, you have to find it out properly.”
He continues: “Yes, then we just wait a little longer or we don’t do it. They just post it. You also see that they have a lot of rectifications, in the sense that they have to take it back after two days. Or that they say: ‘Yes, it was different after all.’ That’s not journalism. I also pass for that, that is also my bar in terms of quality.”
Old and slow
Guido sees no threat at all in the juice channels. “As the juice channels say: you are really old and slow, then they should say that nicely. You know, they have no strategy. What they do is put everything they receive on their DM or in the mail online right away. Yeah, that’s not journalism, is it? They don’t matter to me either.”
Yvonne has quickly become the most talked about woman in the show media world, but doesn’t she matter? At least not for Guido. “The one thing I often say is, well, thanks to the juice channels at least there’s a lot more interest in entertainment, so thank you. That is positive, but they don’t get in my way at all.”
Mischa
You can listen to Mischa Blok’s podcast with Guido as the main guest below: