As a reporter at NRC Handelsblad, a national newspaper in the Netherlands (circulation 240,000), Dick van Eijk spent much of his time on projects involving data analysis, as well as on stories that deal with demography or society as a whole. After having started as a general reporter, he covered the beat of transport and infrastructure for five years. Also he was editor-in-chief of the newspaper’s online edition. During this period he received the Aranea Award for reporting on the social consequences of the internet.
In 1993 he started discovering the power of databases and similar tools in reporting. The maps showing all kind of regional aspects of election results he introduced after the general elections in 1994 have become a traditional feature of the newspaper’s election coverage. Major projects were about good and bad neighbourhoods in Dutch cities, and about disparities in the allocation of royal medals of merit. He taught searching and database skills to journalists in various countries.
Dick van Eijk is one of the founders of the VVOJ, the Dutch-Flemish association of investigative journalists. In 2005, he coordinated the research projects Investigative Journalism in the US and Sweden – Lessons to the Low Countries, and Investigative Journalism in Europe.
Since 2006 he is the business editor of the newspaper.
Programme
Connecting the dots
Links
NRC Handelsblad
