The Netherlands is in holiday mode and we notice that at NU.nl. From June to September, there is a lot of talk about cucumber season. But does this phenomenon really exist? Front page compiler Kim Einder explains.
In the summer the news agenda is relatively empty. Many people are on holiday, companies are scaling down, the Chamber is on recess, many sports competitions are on hold and most demonstrations are postponed until after the holidays, because then there is more enthusiasm.
This ensures that there is little planned news, but there is also less unpredictable news. For example, there are fewer cars on the road because people don’t have to travel as much. This obviously means fewer accidents.
Less predictable
“Normally the news agenda is so full that for a large part of the day we simply write news items about what is happening in the Netherlands and the rest of the world at that moment. Part of it is ‘planned news’. to a certain extent: lawsuits, political debates, reports coming out, and so on,” Kim said. “That is less in the summer.”
“And because there is also less ‘unplanned news’, such as accidents, the days are simply less full.”
According to Kim, that forces the editors to be more creative. “We spend the time that we have left over in the summer on preparing explanations and doing research for our own news. And looking for updates on news from earlier this year. How is the research going on, for example, into the woman who tried to climb on a dolphin at Zandvoort?”
Breather
In short: in the summer the pace is lower on the one hand, but on the other it forces you to ask more questions about the news.
“I usually like working in the summer months because the reduced news flow requires a sharp and innovative eye,” Kim says.
“I usually say, because you are not as creative every summer day and it is sometimes nice if the site fills itself more ‘automatically’. The relative peace also has advantages. It was a heavy new year, in which we were constantly ‘on’ This respite will be convenient.”
‘Busy’ cucumber time
This summer it is a slightly different cucumber season than usual, due to the farmers’ protests, the war in Ukraine and the asylum and nitrogen crisis. “Nevertheless, there is more room to think about which angle we choose for a subject or which long-term dossier is interesting to delve into. Last week, for example, we published an illuminating piece about the mess within the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), a problem that has been going on for months.”
“Despite the relative busyness, we work with a summer schedule. Of course we also want to go on holiday ourselves. This makes working during the so-called cucumber season extra exciting. If a major event unexpectedly takes place, we have to deal with it with a smaller team. MH17 was shot out of the sky in the middle of the summer holidays of 2014, it was all hands on deck.”
Do you want to know more about how we work? on this page find more explanation.
–
