Hundreds of journalists from the Algemeen Dagblad, de Volkskrant, NU.nl and other national and regional publications of media group DPG briefly interrupted work this Thursday. With the protest action they want to strengthen their demand for compensation for the loss of purchasing power resulting from inflation.
In Amsterdam, permanent editors and freelancers from de Volkskrant leave around ten o’clock. Fidelity and Het Parool the common building of their newspapers en masse. With yellow A4 sheets, with ‘10%’ on them, and a large banner with the text: ‘Journalism has a price’, they crowd together at two coffee carts of the journalists’ union NVJ, for what is called a ‘work meeting’.
“This is not intended to affect readers,” says Volkskrant editor Natalie Righton, chairman of the editorial board. “It is a friendly action to increase the pressure and let the management know that we demand purchasing power compensation.” The journalists want a structural addition of ten percent retroactively to January 2023, for permanent editors and freelancers, and another five percent from January 1 next year.
Volkskrant editor-in-chief Pieter Klok is also standing among the demonstrators, holding a yellow A4 sheet without text that he has received in his hands. The textless and imageless paper is the symbol with which freelancers take action, to show that without their written, photographed and drawn contributions, newspapers would have many empty spaces.
“I always support my editors, but not necessarily behind every action,” says Klok reservedly. “I am concerned because the positions are so far apart.” He also points out that it is “complicated” to precisely determine the extent of the loss of purchasing power. The issue should be resolved during negotiations for a new collective labor agreement, which start next week.
DPG, the largest newspaper publisher in the Netherlands, promised its journalists a one-off income-related benefit last month – “to respond to the dissatisfaction”. According to the journalists, this benefit, ranging from 1,500 euros gross for the group with the lowest incomes to zero euros for incomes above 80,000 euros, is not sufficient, also because no compensation has been promised to the freelancers.
A bit premature
DPG calls Thursday’s action “a bit premature” in a statement and refuses to respond to the substantive demands for the time being. The company wants to wait for the collective labor agreement negotiations. “We will see if we can reach an agreement there. These conversations have been planned for some time and we are conducting them as a collective of employers and employees. Not solo as DPG Media with only one of the unions and for only some of our employees.” The new collective labor agreement must come into effect on January 1, 2024.
At the head office of DPG Netherlands in Hoofddorp, journalists from, among others, NU.nl, Dragonfly and Margriet this Thursday also at ten o’clock, says Noémi van de Pol, chairman of the editorial committee of NU.nl. Similar actions took place at, among others Brabants Dagblad, The Gelderlanderthe Provincial Zeeland Courant (PZC) and Tubantia.
Journalists almost never stand up for themselves when it comes to finances
Broad dissatisfaction among journalists about the loss of purchasing power has been brewing for more than a year. Last month, editors and staff loved NRC (part of Mediahuis, the other major newspaper publisher in the Netherlands) a similar work stoppage as the current DPG journalists. Here too, permanent employees and freelancers work together. NRC will pay an extra five percent for both groups from September to December, pending the outcome of the collective labor agreement negotiations. Mediahuis Nederland responded to that gesture with a one-off payment for the editors of, among others The Telegraph, Noordhollands Dagblad and The Limburger.
Carpenter
“This is something very exceptional,” says Paul Teixeira, publishing company secretary of the NVJ trade union, about the actions at DPG and previously NRC. “Journalists almost never stand up for themselves when it comes to finances. They practice journalism as a passion and accept that they are paid less than a carpenter. The fact that they are now taking action shows that they are in dire straits. Like these major Belgian publishers [DPG en Mediahuis, red.] Once again they have made good profits, they always say that this would not have been possible without their great journalists. It’s great that they appreciate that, but it is not reflected in the payment.”
Teixeira also calls it exceptional that employed employees and freelancers work together during the actions. “But for me it is very self-evident,” says Volkskrant editor Cecilia Tabak, member of the newspaper’s action committee. “It is strange that DPG gives permanent employees an amount of 800 to 1,500 euros, and thereby acknowledges that there is a financial problem, but does not want to do anything for the freelancers. We all make the newspaper together, we are one team.”
Many freelancers are present at the demonstrative ‘work meeting’ in Amsterdam. Remke de Lange, film critic for, explains how difficult the position they are in, including in this demonstration Fidelity and self-employed as a freelancer. “Most freelancers work from home. To participate in this 15-minute action, some of them have to take the train and sacrifice a morning of their own time.”