The success of a quality newspaper

Historian Pien van der Hoeven will be defending her PhD dissertation on 1 November, based on her book about the history of the origins of NRC Handelsblad. 

Scepticism

The merger of Algemeen Handelsblad and the Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant in 1970 met with little confidence for the future. For both loss-making newspapers, a merger was the only way to keep their publications afloat. With a management team that itself had little confidence in the success of the venture and a weak editorial team, the chance of success was limited.  But, in spite of this scepticism, within ten years NRC Handelsblad had become a quality newspaper that represented the standard for Dutch journalism. 


Exciting reading

In Het succes van een kwaliteitskrant Van der Hoeven is seeking an answer to the question of how NRC Handelsblad managed to be successful where its predecessors had failed. And this makes for exciting reading. Van der Hoeven sketches a lively and innovative image of the seventies, a period when Dutch society was experiencing substantial change. 

Anecdotes and memories

Eminent NRC names such as Editor-in-Chief André Spoor and columnists Jan Blokker, H.J.A. Hofland and J.J. Heldring are discussed in Van der Hoeven's account of the history of the newspaper. On the basis of their anecdotes and memories,  Van der Hoeven cleverly manages to interweave the personal experiences of all these key protagonists with the main themes of Dutch history. 

Uitgeverij Prometheus
Paperback, 544 pages
Price: € 29,95
ISBN: 978 90 446 1769 6

(31 October 2012)

PhD defence

Ms R. van der Hoeven
Het succes van een kwaliteitskrant. De ontstaansgeschiedenis van NRC Handelsblad
(The success of a quality newspaper. The history of the origins of NRC Handelsblad)
Faculty of Humanities
Thursday 1 November, 11:15 hrs
Supervisors: Professor J.T.M. Bank, Professor F.P.I.M. van Vree

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Last Modified: 31-10-2012