How Brussels-based journalists report ‘The Europe story’
Brussels is not just home to civil servants and members of the European Parliament; the EU’s de facto capital also houses one of the world’s largest press corps.
After the EU expanded to 27 countries in 2007, there were said to be 1,300 accredited journalists working in the city, more than in any other single location. Since then, cost pressures have trimmed that number to just under 900, slightly fewer than in Washington, DC.
But the real numbers are hard to track. Newspaper correspondents, wire services, online-only media offices and TV and radio journalists are being supplemented by a growing number of freelancers, bloggers and other commentators. “It’s clear that the traditional media have been feeling the pinch and are having their thunder slightly stolen by online media,” says Michael Mann, spokesman for Maroš Šefcˇoviˇc, Commission Vice-President for Inter- Institutional Affairs and Administration.
In spite of the size of the Brussels press corps, most of its journalists are generalists and most media outlets are represented by small offices or individuals. Agence Europe’s Daily Bulletin and the weekly European Voice, owned by The Economist, are the most significant print publications devoted entirely to institutional and political issues.
They face competition from online media, including EurActiv, which covers most policy areas, and specialist outlets such as MLex, which began by concentrating on competition issues but has expanded into financial services, energy and environment. Despite cutting back in recent years, the wire services have larger offices, with journalists able to specialize and gain sector expertise.
The largest of the international dailies, The Financial Times, has a staff of four. “It’s still an accepted fact that the FT is the journal of record here,” says Mann. “It’s a vital business newspaper on an international front and more widely read, because it’s in English.”
But most journalists cover a wide range of sectors – if not all of them – on their own, as well as EU institutional issues, which leaves them thinly spread. The result is that only the biggest stories get broad coverage in the national newspapers of each member state. And when Brussels correspondents for those titles get to write on a topic with wider implications – the EU’s response to the banking crisis, for example – they have to compete for space with specialists back home. Brussels journalists, therefore, often concentrate on “internal” issues – institutional and treaty changes, European elections or activities at the Commission – which may exacerbate the perception that the EU is inward looking and fails to connect with its citizens.