GeenStijl
GeenStijl is a Dutch blog founded on 10 April 2003. The logo is a pink coloured crown within a circle. In the Dutch language, the term "geen stijl" is used to describe an act by a person or organisation that lacks style or manners.
GeenStijl often uses a provocative tone when referring to other Internet sites and blogs. Commenters on the site are called reaguurders which is a portmanteau of the Dutch verb reageren and the adjective guur. Famously, in March 2005 GeenStijl launched a plan to unseat the second Balkenende cabinet. GeenStijl announced on their website that they would bus people from all over the country to Rotterdam, where one of the cabinet parties was holding a convention. These people could sign up as new party members at the convention, and vote against the party's participation in the cabinet. This hoax created a media uproar; even the :nl:NOS Journaal|NOS Journaal of the public television reported the event.
At the height of their existence, the blog attracted around 75,000 visitors each day and was one of the top 10 news sites of the Netherlands. Current day these numbers are declining rapidly, with the site only attracting roughly 10.000 visitors daily and being ranked at about position 12.000 for Dutch websites.
On 17 March 2006 the Telegraaf Media Group took a 40% interest in GeenStijl. The editorial team of Dominique Weesie and Ambroos Wiegers both owned 50% of the shares, against 30% after the takeover. The deal was claimed to be worth €2.6 million.
This turned out not to be such a good deal, so they sold their interest pretty quickly, retaining ownership of the site Dumpert. Other sister sites, like autobahmn and glamorama were killed off due to lack of visitors.
Dominique Weesie said that he saw a market for a tough-talking, politically incorrect blog, when he started GeenStijl in 2003, because existing blogs used language that was too vulgar for the mainstream media. One feature of the blog is the use of intentionally misspelt four-letter words to reduce their shock effect. The site has been criticized for the xenophobic and extreme nature of the comments it allows readers to post. Both the editors and the readers of GeenStijl have invented a wide range of names to refer to immigrants to the Netherlands that are generally considered to be stereotypic and derisive. They also use insulting words for right-wing people they believe to go over the mark though and in recent years inappropriate reader comments are jorissed away.
In combination with Weesie's network, who had been a reporter for the major Dutch newspaper "de Telegraaf" for more than 10 years, this has proven a successful formula. Geenstijl soon followed up with web videos featuring Rutger Castricum as star reporter.
In May 2006, internet service providers in Bonaire began boycotting GeenStijl after the blog had published secret and private documents of Bonairean public prosecutor Ernst Wesselius. GeenStijl claims it obtained the documents via the P2P software LimeWire, although investigators did not find this software on Wesselius's computer. The ISPs stated that "this is a one time action, because the publication has infringed our sense of ethics". Access to the site from Bonaire has since been restored.
GeenStijl started working on the television program SteenGeyl with public broadcaster BNN, in 2007. GeenStijl founder Weesie stated they were to spend "taxpayer's money." However, a dispute arose over the timeslot in which the program was to be broadcast, and production was halted. Two years later they started a successful campaign to get their own public broadcasting organisation under the name PowNed, which began broadcasting on Dutch public television in September 2010.
In May 2017 more than 100 female journalists, female politicians, actresses and other women called for an advertisement boycott of GeenStijl. The stated reason was because of the sex fantasies, some violent, that appeared on numerous occasions in the comments section.
Dominique Weesie started Powned and its Television station Powned, because he disagreed with how public television was made and funded in the Netherlands. He regarded Dutch television celebrities as overpaid lazy people. One of the main goals of the Powned television station, was to 'blow up' the Dutch public television system from the inside. However, the second Weesie started receiving funds from the public television organisation, he changed his opinion.
In the meantime, Geenstijl lost much of its original content creators due to the Telegraaf buyout and the fact that Weesie left to create Powned.
Since, Geenstijl has turned from a more political right-wing oriented blog, to a more left-wing blog. Note: visitors still remain more politically right-oriented, but the people running Geenstijl are known to be left-wing. They apply rigorous censorship over the comments section, anyone having any form of criticism will be banned without any form of discussion. Due to visitors declining, they have had several 'general pardons' in which they unbanned everyone, but they were soon banned again. Current censorship on Geenstijl even outranks the censorship on the Dutch weblog 'joop.nl', which is traditionally a geenstijl antagonist and was once heavily criticized by geenstijl because of its censorship.
Because the number of visitors was dropping rapidly, and because Geenstijl was no longer owned by a big commercial instance, they ran out of funds and started the 'membership' campaign, with moderate success. Also, people with an account were still subject to the censorship.
During the Corona pandemic Geenstijl was not critical of the news or the mainstream media, but actually led the frenzy about Corona. This was done because they also owned 'smoelbeschermers.nl', where they wanted to sell face masks. They sold non-approved face masks for about a 500% markup. Once regular stores started selling face masks at more normal prices, and their face mask business collapsed, Geenstijl became somewhat more critical of the Corona crisis.
It is run by people who, despite the Telegraaf buyout, and the huge interest of other media companies in the Geenstijl crew, did not manage to get hired anywhere else. The original Geenstijl was on-point, sharp, witty, sometimes bastardly, and had some mayor news scoops, they were relevant.
In short: geenstijl had a short rise to success, then the original founders got hooked on public funds using the 'powned' vessel. What was left of Geenstijl was sold to the 'Telegraaf' media-group, who took its more successful content creators and the high-traffic site dumper, and then dumped the remaining remains of Geenstijl back onto the market. This led to a massive decline in visitor numbers.