''HUMO'' is a popular

Dutch-language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' ...

Belgian weekly radio and television supermarket tabloid.

History and profile

''Humoradio'' (meaning a portmanteau of 'humor' and 'radio' in English) was first published in 1936 as a Dutch-language counterpart to ''Le Moustique'', now '' Télémoustique''. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

between 1940 and 1944 ''Humoradio'' was not published. In 1958, when television started to reach a larger audience in the country, the magazine was renamed as ''Humo''. The magazine is published on a weekly basis. ''HUMO'' as it is recognized today started emerging from 1969 on, when Guy Mortier became its chief editor. He gave the magazine its playful comedic tone, put more emphasis on articles about

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

and shaped it into a magazine that appealed to a left-wing, progressive audience. During Mortier's term many classic columns, interview series, annual cultural events and comic strips that are still considered to be part of "Humo" today saw the day of light. Among those is the annual ''HUMO's Pop Poll'', organized since 1967, which lets readers elect their favorite people, radio shows, TV shows, music groups,... of the year. Another recurring event is

Humo's Rock Rally Humo's Rock Rally is a Belgian contest for rock bands, organized every second year since 1978. It is organized by the Belgian magazine HUMO. Every band that has not yet released an official recording, may enter the Rock Rally, by submitting a d ...

, an important Belgian contest for young rock bands,. Humo also sponsors the

Rock Werchter Rock Werchter is an annual music festival held in the village of Werchter, near Leuven, Belgium, since 1976 and is a large sized rock music festival. The 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2012 and 2014 festivals received the Arthur award for ''best festiv ...

festival since its conception in 1977. In 2003 Mortier retired. ''HUMO''s home cartoonist is Kamagurka, whose style influenced the overall cult appeal of the magazine. The magazine's mascots, Bert and

Cowboy Henk ''Cowboy Henk'' is a Belgian absurd/surreal humour gag-a-day comic strip series drawn by Herr Seele and written by Kamagurka. It was originally published in the newspaper '' De Morgen'', but later taken over by the magazine '' HUMO'', in which ...

, are creations by him, both featured in weekly comics series. The owner of ''HUMO'' was

Sanoma Sanoma Corporation (, formerly SanomaWSOY) is Finland's largest media group. The company has media business in Finland and a learning business in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Norway and Spain, among others. The company is headquarte ...

and was published by Sanoma magazines. In May 2015 the magazine was acquired by

De Persgroep DPG Media Group is a Belgian media company also active in the Netherlands and Denmark. It is owned by the Van Thillo family and employs some 6,000 people. Divisions The DPG Media Group operates through three national subsidiaries: * DPG Media ...

Circulation

Since 2002 ''HUMO'' has had a declining circulation rate. During the period of 2006-2007 the circulation of the magazine was 278,000 copies. The magazine sold 320,000 copies on 23 September 2008 when it offered a free copy of ''Goddamned Days on a Goddamned Planet'' which was an unpublished new novel of Flemish author Dimitri Verhulst. During the first quarter of 2009 the circulation of the magazine was 256,558 copies. The magazine had a circulation of 215,409 copies in 2010 and 197,105 copies in 2011. It was 166,732 copies in 2012. The 2013 circulation of the magazine was 150,232 copies.

Past and present contributors to "Humo"

Journalists

* Herman De Coninck * Yves Desmet * Marc Didden * Guy Mortier * Herman Selleslags * Serge Simonart * Rudy Vandendaele

Columnists

* Herman Brusselmans * Willy Courteaux *

Patrick De Witte Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...

Arnon Grunberg Arnon Yasha Yves Grunberg (; born 22 February 1971) is a Dutch writer of novels, essays, and columns, as well as a journalist. He published some of his work under the heteronym Marek van der Jagt. He lives in New York. His work has been transla ...

Gerrit Komrij Gerrit Jan Komrij (30 March 1944 – 5 July 2012) was a Dutch poet, novelist, translator, critic, polemic journalist and playwright. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s writing poetry that sharply contrasted with the free-form poetry of his ...

* Tom Lanoye * Hugo Matthysen * Jan Mulder * Kees van Kooten * Guido Van Meir * Rudy Vandendaele

Cartoonists

* Jonas Geirnaert * Gummbah * Jeroom * Kamagurka ('' Bert'', ''

'') * Ever Meulen * Herr Seele (''

'') *

Peter van Straaten Peter van Straaten (25 March 1935 – 8 December 2016) was a Dutch cartoonist and comics artist. He is best known for his political cartoons as well as his satirical observations of everyday people. He also had a newspaper comic strip '' Vader ...

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Humo 1936 establishments in Belgium Magazines published in Belgium Weekly magazines published in Belgium Dupuis titles Dutch-language magazines Satirical magazines published in Belgium Magazines published in Flanders Listings magazines Magazines established in 1936 Music magazines Television magazines