HP/De Tijd leaves publisher Audax after 31 years. The opinion magazine continues independently in the foundation ‘Het Vrije Woord’. This foundation, which will operate on a non-profit basis, will ensure the continued existence of HP/De Tijd.
HP/De Tijd has been struggling for years. Since the early 1990s, paid circulation has fallen from over 50,000 to fewer than 15,000 copies. The opinion magazine has always been able to count on the support of Audax CEO Jaques de Leeuw and his successor Hubert de Leeuw. The de Leeuw family founded the Het Vrije Woord Foundation and made it financially possible, and HP/De Tijd is housed there in close consultation with editor-in-chief Tom Kellerhuis. “With this non-profit foundation, all income will accrue to the daring and distinctive quality journalism that characterizes HP/De Tijd,” says Hubert de Leeuw in a message on Hpdetijd.nl†
Audax will focus more on logistics and retail
HP/De Tijd is the latest title in a row of magazines that Audax is selling off. Last year, Audax stopped publishing youth magazines: Hitkrant, GIRLZ and CosmoGIRL!
In recent years, Audax, owner of retail chains such as Ako and Bruna, has increasingly developed into a logistics and retail organization for magazines. ‘And there is no longer any role as publisher of an opinion weekly’, writes HP/De Tijd on the website.
Editor-in-chief Tom Kellerhuis responds: “Quality journalism is not only a precious, but also fragile asset in our fragile democracy. We move forward with renewed energy and full journalistic courage and thank Audax and the De Leeuw family for their support and cooperation over the past 31 years.”
The new position of opinion magazines
HP/De Tijd is not the only newsmagazine struggling with declining circulations. In recent years you have seen the circulation of opinion magazines invariably decrease. The only exception to this rule is De Groene Amsterdammer. Competition from online platforms such as De Correspondent, Follow the Money is fierce. The position of the opinion weekly in the market has also changed. Because print is no longer current due to the long production time, you see that many regular newspapers have started to focus on background, investigative and opinion journalism. The domain that used to be allotted to opinion magazines. With the increasing popularity of the ‘weekend subscription’, the daily newspapers have come to dominate the ‘slow journalism’ market, at the expense of traditional newsmagazines.
Circulation development of news magazines in the Netherlands
The graph below shows the circulation development of newsmagazines over the past five years.
- In 2016 Elsevier Weekblad (now EW) had a paid circulation of 80,761. This has dropped to 48,371 copies.
- HP/De Tijd drops from 26,565 copies in 2016 to 14,949 paid circulation in 2021.
- Vrij Nederland also fell from 21,708 in 2016 to 15,542 in 2021.
- The exception is De Groene Amsterdammer. The magazine had a paid circulation of 19,474 in 2016 and that has grown to 27,480 copies in 2021.
About HP/The Time
HP/De Tijd was created in September 1990 from a merger between the opinion weekly Haagse Post and the Catholic weekly De Tijd. Between October 1992 and March 1993, HP/De Tijd also published a Sunday newspaper, entitled: HP/De Tijd op Zondag. From the 1990s, the weekly magazine has steadily lost part of its paid circulation from 51,280 copies in 1993 to 30,829 in 2000. At the beginning of this century, the magazine experienced a small revival in paid sales to 39,474 copies in 2004. But after that, not only the circulation, but also the advertising revenue shrank drastically.
In 2008, the Audax management developed a rescue plan for HP/De Tijd, which included a significant downsizing of the editorial staff. Part of this plan was the departure of editor-in-chief Henk Steenhuis and deputy Thieu Vaessen, who are always opposed to downsizing the editorial staff and lowering the frequency. Between 2009 and 2012, several editors-in-chief changed positions. But no one was able to stabilize the circulation. That is why the management of Audax decided in 2012 to make HP/De Tijd a monthly magazine and to continue editing the hull.
In 2014, former editor Tom Kellerhuis became editor-in-chief on a freelance basis. Kellerhuis experimented with various extensions, such as a women’s magazine entitled Zus, which had to tap into a female target group under the name ‘Glopinie’. HP/De Tijd also published various lifestyle specials, under the title HP/De Tijd Stijl.