Groningen Mail is one year old!
Take a trip down memory lane with us to learn how we grew an English media outlet in Groningen.
Groningen Mail started as an idea a little more than a year ago by Arian Adeli, sometime before I joined in on the project. When I first heard the ambitious plan to launch an all-English newspaper from scratch, where none of the team spoke Dutch, it seemed like a distant dream. However, we took the process step by step.
With the founder's guidance, we brainstormed and brainstormed some more. We created a vision — a community of internationals beyond just news. I still remember how proud I was when my article was chosen as the first piece to go live with the launch of the outlet. The website looked great, and so did Instagram. Existing proudly with just under 10 followers, supported by our team and close friends. It was the start of something great, but we did not expect at the time exactly how fulfilling this dream would become. After that, the grind began.
Hope and Consistency
Soon after the launch, Arian organised a networking event in collaboration with another venture launching. Groningen Mail x KKH gathered a large crowd of students and professionals to give talks and spread the word. It was at that event that we gained some interest from our first contributors, who helped carry this project so much further than we could have without them.
With new team members and a headstrong attitude, we were looking for ways to reach a broader audience. We pushed out our articles as ads, which some of you may remember seeing on your feeds. We also began looking for sponsorship opportunities, sending collaboration offers to businesses and investors alike. We had little success with that; hundreds of emails were left unread or rejected. However, we managed to scrape by a small sum to sustain the advertisement expenses with partnered articles.
Collaborations and Community
While the larger companies and ventures were largely unresponsive, we switched our target to the student community - specifically Student Associations. Many groups were enthusiastic about us covering their largest and proudest events closer to the end of the academic year, and it was a busy period for us. From the Indonesian market by PPI, USVA’s Live Support, and other diverse and exciting events were documented and shared with our audience. We even squeezed in an interview with The Next 3’s founder before the team switched. A big goal with this newspaper was to show more sides of the city than most knew about, and this helped both us and our readers to uncover more artsy, cultural and bustling sides of Groningen accessible to internationals.
Articles were not the only things on our agenda. We hosted our first collaborative event for King’s Day, together with Parkrun, Amicus Civitas, and others where anyone was free to show up and chat. We also had opportunities to contribute to the academic side of the student city. We were invited to participate in the RUG Media Studies Market Fair, where we coached a group of students to practice consultation and business problem-solving for half a semester. We were also fortunate to host an interactive workshop with Commotie, delving into the world of article writing. A lot of preparation and thought was poured into each endeavour, and successfully completing each one brought immense joy and pride in our hard work.
On the Road to Establishment
The more recognition we received, the more trusted sources reached out to us to help deliver the news. Sensitive topics such as protests and university controversy, and even press releases with the biggest names in Groningen. We were able to secure a stand at KEI-week, the biggest introduction week in Groningen, and similarly advertise our paper at ESN introduction week.
As we experimented with video content for the socials, we produced a few successful video reels, one of which reached 50k views. We’ve covered topics ranging from activity agendas to legal guides to interviews on entrepreneurship and passion projects within the Groningen community. And we’ve only just scratched the surface of stories and news to share with the city!
Slowly but surely, we climbed to a reach of over 150,000 views across all our platforms and 1500 followers on Instagram, with a month or so of ads. With over 20 wonderful contributors on our team and thousands of engaged readers, we are grateful for all the support and attention we received on our journey to make Groningen Mail a household name.
What started as a hypothetical suggestion, has now created a community of news, events and connections. We hope you will continue to support Groningen Mail in the future and help keep Groningen engaged, interesting and fun for everyone!