The NOS and the regional broadcasters will collaborate even more closely in the future. Currently, the collaboration mainly consists of exchanging news topics that have already been made, but the intention is also to intensify the collaboration at the beginning of the journalistic process.

This mainly involves gathering news, planning and producing together. They are also focusing more on joint investigative journalism, the NOS and the thirteen regional broadcasters say. In addition, there will be a structural exchange of personnel, whereby regional (final) editors will be placed with the NOS and vice versa. There will also be a joint ‘academy’, in which the NOS will share knowledge and experience with regional colleagues.

In a statement, the initiators state that the independent, pluralistic news supply is under increasing pressure. They point to the growing influence of large technology companies such as Google, Apple and Meta. “A strong public media sector alongside the major (foreign) private publishers is necessary to maintain a diverse media landscape,” they write in the statement.

The NOS and the regional broadcasters have been working together for decades. There are already regional blocks in the NOS Journaals and articles from regional broadcasters regularly appear on the NOS app and site. Conversely, articles from the NOS also appear on the channels of the regional broadcasters.