de Volkskrant

de Volkskrant

Front page on March 29, 2010 (2010-03-29)
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Compact
Owner	De Persgroep Nederland
Editor	Philippe Remarque (1967)
Founded	02 October 1919
Political alignment	Centre left, Catholicism (until 1960s)
Headquarters	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Official website	www.volkskrant.nl

de Volkskrant (literally "the people's paper") is a national daily Dutch morning newspaper, the leading centre-left broadsheet, although now in tabloid size.

History

De Volkskrant was founded in 1919 and is a daily morning newspaper since 1921. Originally de Volkskrant was a Roman Catholic newspaper, closely linked to the Catholic People's Party and the catholic pillar. On its re-founding in 1945 its office moved from Den Bosch to Amsterdam.^[1] It became a left-wing newspaper in the 1960s. Its former clear left wing stance has been watered down since 1980.^[2] On 23 August 2006 the Volkskrant published its 25,000th edition.

Circulation

The daily circulation was 326,000 copies in 2002, dwindling to 260,000 in 2008 and still decreasing, which nevertheless makes it the third biggest newspaper of the Netherlands, after the De Telegraaf and Algemeen Dagblad. The total Dutch newspaper circulation in 2002 was 4.9 million (4.2m paid and 0.7m free). The paper has since then heavily lost in circulation. The circulation drop occurred under the editorship of Pieter Broertjes, who gave up his 20-year tenure in 2010.^{[citation needed]}

Ownership

De Volkskrant was part of PCM Uitgevers N.V., a publishing company which was also the owner of NRC Handelsblad, Algemeen Dagblad, and Trouw. Until 1 January 2003 the newspaper Het Parool was part of PCM Uitgevers too.

In 2009 PCM Uitgevers was taken over by De Persgroep N.V., a Belgian publishing company.

Free newspaper

In October 2006, Volkskrant announced that it would start publishing a free version of its paper targeting youths.^[3] Its competitors would be Metro and Sp!ts, two other free dailies. However PCM gave no permission for this so the plan had to be retracted. Instead PCM intended to come with a free newspaper together with investor Marcel Boekhoorn.^[4] PCM later withdrew from the project and Boekhoorn started the free daily De Pers using his own resources. A year later PCM started its own free paper DAG, that lived very shortly and went digital after another year.

Typeface

The typeface Capitolium News by Gerard Unger (2006) has been the main type used in De Volkskrant since 2 December 2006.

Notable contributors

• Kader Abdolah
• Mohammed Benzakour
• Godfried Bomans
• Wim Boost
• Hugo Brandt Corstius
• Remco Campert
• Thomas von der Dunk
• Jan Mulder
• Michaël Zeeman

References

1. ^ Sommer, Martin Zelfbewust op zoek in de Volkskrant 23 August 2006
2. ^ Sommer, Martin Zelfbewust op zoek in de Volkskrant 23 August 2006
   "Hoogtepunt en tevens laatste oprisping van het linkse levensgevoel was de beruchte Koninginnedagkrant van 1 mei 1980. [..] De rellen kwamen er en de Volkskrant solidariseerde zich met het oproer. [..] Zo bleef de Volkskrant de progressiviteit trouw, zij het langzamerhand steeds meer in homeopathische verdunning."
3. ^ Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant to launch free version for younger readers
4. ^ Trouw PCM en Boekhoorn samen in gratis krant 19 October 2006 [1]
   "In plaats van ieder voor zich willen uitgever PCM en investeerder Marcel Boekhoorn nu samen één gratis krant maken. [..]
   Tot teleurstelling van Volkskrant-hoofdredacteur Pieter Broertjes, die wilde dat de gratis PCM-krant door de Volkskrant zou worden gemaakt. [..] Maar daar gaat nu een streep door. „Onze topman heeft ons steeds voorgehouden dat wij een gratis krant gingen maken”, aldus Broertjes [..] „En nu is de koers ineens verlegd.” Broertjes vindt het jammer dat PCM „het risico niet aandurft om een gratis krant te maken.”

External links

• de Volkskrant website
• US English translations of some de Volkskrant articles available from nonprofit WorldMeets.US; search archives here