Journalists who are affiliated with Reporters Online and/or De Coöperatie and its partners can use donations and crowdfunding to earn additional income. Journalists who use this service receive their own page or widget with content of their choice on Reporters Online or their own (WordPress) website, which can remain in place as long as desired. Reporters Online sends a monthly overview of donations on your site and at Reporters Online and provides participants with the email addresses of donors as far as they are available. Donations are paid out monthly.

If you are participating in Reporters Online for the first time, we will need your bank details to transfer the donation proceeds. We will email you about this when we are about to make a payment. An invoice is not necessary.

Donations are transferred by donors to the bank account of Reporters Online and forwarded by Reporters Online to participants, after deduction of commission (10%) and transaction costs of our payment provider. Participants have the right at all times to inspect the donations deposited for them on the bank account of Reporters Online and/or the transactions on their behalf with our payment provider Mollie, in the presence of an independent third party, such as an accountant or notary. In case of demonstrable differences between deposited donations and donation payments made by us, due to administrative or calculation errors or other causes, participants have the right to claim the difference from Reporters Online. If the difference is erroneously in favor of the participant, Reporters Online may offset it with future payments.

For RO participants and members of De Coöperatie and its partners, Reporters Online charges a commission of 10% (excluding VAT). There are no one-time costs associated with using our donation and crowdfunding options, unless the installation requires an extremely large amount of time.

Reporters Online reserves the right to refuse participation if we have reason to believe that donations obtained will be used for purposes other than those reported.

Reporters Online has WordPress plugin that allows users to publish articles (via the RO-database) in Blendle/Cafeyn. You need an account at Reporters Online for the latter, which can be obtained by registering here. After registration, we perform a quick check on the site where you want to use the plugin - you cannot use it to sell articles that contain illegal content or pornography. If you do so, you cannot use the plugin or our platform.

There are no costs associated with using the plugin.

We assist in promoting articles through social media and mailings. However, marketing is primarily the responsibility of the authors themselves.

There are no requirements regarding the frequency of publication, etc. However, we do expect our authors to exercise their own judgment in terms of content and marketing, and to communicate with their readers. We expect our authors to adhere to all applicable laws and journalistic norms in their articles. If you do not do so, we reserve the right to not publish your articles on our site and in online kiosks and, in extreme cases, to terminate your participation. On a site produced by us, you are entitled to publish whatever you wish, as long as it does not contain illegal content (defamation, libel, threats, etc.) or pornography. Republishing articles that have appeared elsewhere is allowed (as far as we are concerned, although some clients may have different views), but we do expect you to regularly publish original articles. Under normal circumstances, Reporters Online does not publish articles on weekends, but we may do so if there is an urgent reason.

90 percent of the net proceeds from everything sold and donated via Reporters Online goes to the author/authors, and 10 percent to Reporters Online. The net proceeds are the earnings from your articles in online kiosks after deduction of VAT (9%) and kiosk commission (40%). For donations on Reporters Online and your own site, you will receive 90% of the net proceeds, after deduction of transaction costs for payments and our commission.

In plain English, this means that 50% of the total earnings in online kiosks are for you, and 90% of donations after deduction of transaction costs.

Authors are our clients and receive a summary of the turnover achieved on Reporters Online at least once per quarter by email.

We pay out donations (see above) monthly, a few days after the end of the month. kiosk earnings are paid out quarterly, usually 1.5 months after the end of the quarter (you will receive the summary of royalties a few weeks earlier). We only pay out royalties that we have actually received. We do not need a contract, and neither do our authors – we are not an employer or publisher. We pay the VAT on your proceeds when applicable – unlike making journalistic work for an employer, selling it to readers is not exempt from VAT. Donations are, as long as there is no quid pro quo or other obligation from you.

Reporters Online is a platform for content distribution and hosting and is not a publisher in the legal sense of the word. Reporters Online does not make any editorial changes to texts. The substantive and legal responsibility and liability for (content and placement of) texts and images, as posted by the authors who participate in Reporters Online, rests entirely and exclusively with them. They agree to indemnify Reporters Online against all claims by third parties, which are brought against Reporters Online and arise from or relate to the articles or other materials they have provided, unless and insofar as there is liability of Reporters Online due to a failure to adequately modify or remove the articles or other materials once Reporters Online has been notified of the legal violation. This indemnification also applies to articles and other materials that authors have made available for republication via third parties.

Copyright holders can report infringements to our email address info@reportersonline.eu through a notice and take down request. After notification, authors will immediately remove articles or other materials from the website reportersonline.eu and, where necessary, elsewhere, when there is an actual infringement of rights, facilitated by Reporters Online where necessary. Changes or deletions in content as published on third-party platforms that are not automatically adjusted after they have been changed or deleted on the above-mentioned website reportersonline.eu will be made as soon as possible by Reporters Online, on behalf of our authors. Authors agree to indemnify Reporters Online in case of such changes or deletions on external platforms against all claims by third parties, which are brought against Reporters Online and arise from or relate to the articles or other materials they have provided, unless and insofar as there is liability of Reporters Online due to a failure to adequately modify or remove the articles or other materials once Reporters Online has been notified of the legal violation. This indemnification also applies to articles and other materials that authors have made available for republication via third parties.

The above does not apply to any material published by Reporters Online itself, including but not limited to our own blogs. In cases of (copyright) infringements for which Reporters Online is responsible, we accept full liability.

If authors falsely and/or without our knowledge use our company name and/or their participation in the platform in any way, such as for business loans or grant applications, we reserve the right to immediately suspend their participation in Reporters Online, either temporarily or permanently.

Publications on Reporters Online must comply with general journalistic principles: they may not contain demonstrable factual inaccuracies and, where necessary, must apply fair and balanced reporting. They may not violate the law: discriminatory and defamatory publications are not allowed. The same applies to articles in which general, unfounded and/or unverifiable accusations are made that are not specifically directed at a person or organization. Reporters Online does not publish pornography.

Authors who seriously harm the interests of other participants in the platform or (freelance) journalists in general may be removed from the platform, either temporarily or permanently. For example, when their actions put other journalists in danger or cause financial damage. The assessment of such situations is solely the responsibility of the management of Reporters Online B.V. and is binding.

When publishing articles on external platforms, the general terms and conditions of those platforms apply.

Authors of Reporters Online have been informed of and agree to all our general terms and conditions upon admission. Dutch law applies to these general terms and conditions.