Opinion makers
In recent years, a couple of digital news initiatives have been established; some of them have grown into trustworthy providers of news and opinion. Launched in 2009, Apache was the first news blog with professional journalists. It focuses on investigative journalism, and access to articles requires a subscription. MO*, which also has a monthly paper edition, focuses on the problem of sustainable development in the South and issues of globalisation. De Wereld Morgen also specialises in critical coverage and opinion and is run by professional journalists as well as citizen journalists. The website is supported by trade unions and committed NGOs, and is known for its leftist viewpoints. Sceptr, on the contrary, claims to be an independent political news medium and publishes conservative, right-wing opinions. Finally, Newsmonkey was branded as the ‘Flemish BuzzFeed’ and focuses on social media as its main distribution channel. It is built on the idea of popular lists and videos to go viral. Most of these digital-only news websites have united themselves in Media21.