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Helsinki Edition About Us |
The gossipping of Dutch press "Sure, you must listen to what people want to read, but don't overkill." The Dutch newspapers and news magazines more and more act like nosy neighbours. Editors say they just print what the public wants, but gossip even sneaks into the quality press. Vrij Nederland, an opinion magazine in Holland (a bit comparable to Newsweek), always claimed to be one of the most serious. Nowadays even this magazine's third page is devoted to gossip and sensation. Probably no one missed the break up between Dutch crown prince Willem Alexander and his girlfriend Emily. That's news, of course, she would have been the new queen when she married Alexander and she could have been the mother of a future king. Despite these facts, is it really necessary to put this on the front page for several days, pushing aside what's equally or maybe more, important? One of Holland's' quality daily newspapers, De Volkskrant, even accused other papers a few weeks ago of stealing each others' news about the break up, without being the one to be the first with the story. Since the coming of advertisers in newspapers, printing a paper isn't only a matter of telling the news anymore. It has become more and more a matter of making money. The more readers, the more advertisers want to have their ad in the paper, the more money the publisher makes. It is a vicious circle which is almost impossible to escape from. Is Holland becoming a country of sensational press? "There's a certain tendency the last few years, to look at what people's interests are", says John Bas, news editor of the Dutch regional paper BN/De Stem. "If we listen more to what the public wants to read, we can add something to the news, without losing it's value." Bas doesn't want to label this new kind of reporting as sensational. "It doesn't have to be sensational, I think it's more of an addition." Bas thinks this tendency is a great improvement for Dutch press. "In earlier days we were the 'masters' of the news, like: 'mind your own business, we think it's like this, so this is simply the way it is'. Nowadays we try to keep in touch with our readers in order to print the news and be sure they read it. To achieve that we often hold inquiries and invite the readers to discuss with us. According to Bas it's not only the average person that wants to read a little gossip about the rich and famous. He thinks it's a relief for the readers of the so-called 'quality press' to find some happy news between all the sadness. "Otherwise it isn't explainable that a paper like Volkskrant and a magazine like Vrij Nederland spend a whole page on this kind of stories. The press finally begins to understand what it is the public wants and steps down from his pedestal." He nevertheless warns them to not overkill this understanding. "Otherwise you may become some kind of Donald Duck and I don't think any self-respecting newspaper wants to compare himself to that. Although, Donald Duck has more readers than we do" Marjolein Eijkman |
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