NRC Handelsblad

The NRC Handelsblad, a Netherlands -regional evening newspaper. It was formed in 1970 from the merger of Algemeen Handelsblad with the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant. In the first quarter of 2008, the paid edition of the newspaper was 204 572 (print ) and 6453 ( e- paper ) copies. Editor in chief since 2010 Peter Vandermeersch.

History

The predecessor newspapers of the NRC Handelsblad newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad were the Amsterdam ( founded in 1828 by JW van den Biesen ) ( founded in 1844 by Henricus Nijgh ) and the Rotterdam Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant. A collaboration between two newspapers existed since December 1964. Due to the increasing popularity of television and radio both newspapers lost readers and ads, also there was an increase in paper and printing costs. For this reason, finally, a merger of the two newspapers was explored with a view.

The merger plans were resisted both editors who had set each for other priorities. The Algemeen Handelsblad reported preferred over social and cultural developments during the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant ( inter) national politics and the economy had in his sights. Finally, a merger was not to escape, so you went to the design of the new paper. This should be based on foreign models such as The Times, The Guardian and Süddeutsche Zeitung and turn to an educated audience without much partisan and religious bonds. In the conception also not been implemented ideas of the editorial board of the Algemeen Handelsblad found again. The intended target audience in defiance should later prove that the new newspaper tended to liberalism, in 1967 both precursors had made ​​a recommendation to vote for the VVD. In addition, Joop van Tijn revealed in the published on March 28, 1970 Edition of Vrij Nederland that both newspapers had printed in the past nine days before the general election ads free choice of the VVD.

On 1 October 1970, the first issue of the new fusion newspaper appeared. The editorial office was Rotterdam. In Amsterdam and the northern part of the Netherlands, the NRC Handelsblad was until May 1972, he Handelsblad NRC. The development was what the support initially affected remains unfavorable. Of the three editors in chief Jérôme hero ring ( originally Rotterdamsche Nieuwe Courant ), Henk Hofland and André Spoor ( Algemeen Handelsblad originally ) remained in 1972 only the latter left. 1975 but managed to turn things around control, the newspaper won from then on clearly edition and has established itself as the showpiece Journal of the Netherlands. 1995 was done with the first website of a national Dutch newspaper pioneering work. In the same year the editor of NRC Handelsblad Dagblad Unie, who published newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, the sister, was sold by its owner Reed Elsevier for 865 million guilders at PCM Uitgevers. Thus, the NRC Handelsblad was part of a group that now had the monopoly on national quality newspapers in the Netherlands.

When the mother Publisher PCM Uitgevers was sold to the Belgian newspaper De Persgroep Group in 2009, the Dutch competition authority Nederlandse Mededingingsautoriteit agreed to only under the condition that NRC media would be sold elsewhere. Buyers were the Dutch financial investor Egeria of the C & A Brenninkmeijer family owners (80 percent) and the TV channel Het Gesprek (20 percent), which belongs among other things the media entrepreneur Derk Sauer. Egeria today that 91 percent, sour nine percent of the publisher.

In November 1998, a magazine called "M" has been created, it will be settled in March 2000, the first Saturday edition of each month. As the other Dutch newspapers also brought the new competition in the form of the Internet and has been published since 1999 free newspaper metro edition in losses in this development has been met in March 2006 with the offshoot nrc.next which is a morning newspaper and contrary to the parent newspaper and on younger readers used, which are not as much as their predecessors is ready to take up a newspaper or prefer the newer free newspapers. Since December 2012, the editorial office Amsterdam.

Internet

Previous Editors

Support development

After the merger, the paid circulation initially dropped slightly from 106 121 in 1970 to 97,474 in 1975, from then on it went but steadily and in 1995 a value of 270 950 was reached. Since the turn of the millennium, the Dutch daily newspapers have with new competition such as the Internet and the free papers deal (1999 launched metro and Sp! Ts), the edition has since fallen significantly and is now (fourth quarter 2007), only just over 200,000 copies. The acceptance of the e- newspaper edition has so far not nearly as high as that of the sister newspaper de Volkskrant.

The NRC Handelsblad today

The NRC Handelsblad employs more than 200 editors, of which 20 for nrc.next and about a dozen for the Internet edition and multimedia productions are responsible. With 24 foreign correspondents, the newspaper has the largest such network of correspondents, a Dutch newspaper. The target audience has always been the elite of the country, the two sister newspapers de Volkskrant and Trouw understood likewise as a quality newspaper, although these are not quite so much on a social layer.