''Het Nieuwsblad'' (; en, The Newspaper) is a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

newspaper that mainly focusses on "a broad view" regarding politics, culture, economics, lifestyle, society and sports.

History and profile

In 1929, ''Het Nieuwsblad'' was published by '' De Standaard'' for the first time. In 1939, the sports paper ''Sportwereld'' (established in 1912) was purchased by De Standaard and turned into a daily supplement to their two main newspapers, "De Standaard" and "Het Nieuwsblad". In 1957, three other newspapers were purchased by ''De Standaard'' and initially kept in circulation. In 1966, the further publication of two of them, ''Het Nieuws van de Dag'' and ''Het Vrije Volksblad'', was stopped. The same happened with the third paper, Het Handelsblad, in 1979. In 1959, two more newspapers were purchased, of which ''De Landwacht'' disappeared in 1978. The other paper, ''De Gentenaar'', was turned into a "cover-paper" for ''Het Nieuwsblad'' around the city of

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

. ''De Gentenaar'' still exists today and contains the same articles and columns as ''Het Nieuwsblad'' plus local news from the Ghent area. In 1962, a special supplement for children was created, the Patskrant. In 1977, the name was changed into the Stripkrant. In 2000, the daily Stripkrant was replaced by the Jommekeskrant (on Wednesday) and by Yo (on Mondays, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday). In 1976, '' De Standaard'' went bankrupt before their newspapers were purchased by the Vlaamse Uitgeversmaatschappij. In 1996, ''Het Nieuwsblad'' started a new "cover-paper" in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, named ''Het Stad''. This paper was never successful and disappeared after just two years. In 2003, ''Het Nieuwsblad'' and ''Het Volk'' jointly started the publication of the lifestyle-magazine ''Catchy''. In the same year ''Het Nieuwsblad'' began publishing on Sundays after nearly 75 years of publication and the newspaper also created the cycling award Flandrien of the Year. On 10 May 2008 ''Het Nieuwsblad'' and ''Het Volk'' merged. , the ''Het Nieuwsblad'' website, had an average daily unique visitor count of 332,000, making it the most popular newspaper website in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

. The website, just like the paper edition, is characterised as populist, rather right wing, with a focus on local news, celebrity news and sensational articles.

Circulation

The circulation of ''Het Nieuwsblad'' in 2002 was 241,120 copies. The following year, it had a circulation of 211,000 copies, making it the second best selling Belgian newspaper. In 2006, the paper had an average weekday circulation of 210,000 issues, according to the Centrum voor Informatie over de Media. In 2009 ''Het Nieuwsblad'' had an average market share of 27.04% in Flanders and had a circulation of 263,063 copies. In 2011 the circulation was up to 300,000 copies. The latest available certified figure, from 2015, lists print output at 264 891 copies per day.

References

External links

*
Newspapers in the class room
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nieuwsblad, Het 1929 establishments in Belgium Publications established in 1929 Dutch-language newspapers published in Belgium Belgian news websites