Sunday for me typically involves heading to a cafe for some eggs and toast and hot chocolate and flicking through the Sunday papers, usually the tabloids as they are smaller and easier to handle. There are several problems with that in the Netherlands: a) eggs on toast is not so popular; b) most cafes aren’t open on Sunday at all, let alone early in the morning; c) there are no Sunday papers.
Most papers here are “acquired” as part of a subscription. Buying a paper on a daily basis from a newsagency is not so popular, and the amount of stock is usually very low. In addition, buying papers daily is usually significantly more expensive than having a subscription. For example, buying Eindhovens Dagblad daily costs €1.45, whereas a monthly subscription works out at about €0.87 per day. In city centres around the country on Saturdays there will be people offering you a free paper and then trying to sell you subscriptions with special offers.
There are opportunities to have trial subscriptions, but then there are limits on how often. Last year I had a trial nrc.next plus deal, so I received nrc.next for five days a week and then NRC Handelsblad on Saturdays for five weeks. The thing that annoyed me most was that the Saturday paper was guaranteed to arrive (and usually arrived just in time) by 1pm, so it can’t be read in bed over breakfast. I recently finished a 10-week Volkskrant Saturday subscription, and it was often in my letterbox before 10am.
However, the thickness of the Saturday papers is noticeable compared to Melbourne papers. They’re so thin. It’s so bizarre to pay $5-6 for a tiny tiny paper. On the other hand, there’s a lot of irrelevant stuff in the Melbourne weekend papers, especially if you’re not in the market for a car, house, or job.
The Saturday papers here have significant science sections, covering current research, university news, and occasionally PhD defenses, which is something I haven’t really noticed in Australia. Last year, as part of a course I did on scientific journalism, we wrote short articles for Saturday’s AD. Unfortunately, they are usually published without bylines, so we weren’t credited. In any case, the article I worked on (about the confirmation of a black hole in the Milky Way) was heavily edited — the press release we worked with was rather complex. A few words of our copy made it in though.
Even though the size is a lot less, I prefer the style of Dutch newspapers. I especially like nrc.next’s inclusion of summaries and background info with articles, which is particularly aimed at young professionals who want info quickly. If only I could find someone to bring me eggs on toast and a hot chocolate while I read.
(PS. Since drafting this, I’ve found a cafe in Eindhoven which is a) open on Sundays; b) offers eggs, possibly on toast; c) has a wonderful large reading table with newspapers and magazines. So I am rather pleased, although I am yet to try the eggs and there is no hot chocolate on the menu. The pots of tea are great though.)
4 Comments
July 18, 2009 at 7:20 am
I’m impressed that they have such a focus on science, research, university news and PhD defenses in the weekend papers! You’d never hear of that in Australia … “too boring and elitist” might be opinion of the common Aussie.
It’s a rather sad comparison of our society (mind you, I throw out Unimelb’s Voice publication when it comes with The Age once a month as I consider it either propaganda or a $$-making exercise).
July 19, 2009 at 9:40 am
Admittedly, it’s still a small section, but it’s there nonetheless, and they have dedicated writers/freelancers, so the papers do take it reasonably seriously. The Netherlands are really trying to build themselves up as a knowledge society, but more on that some other time.
July 26, 2009 at 11:29 am
Actually, I picked up a copy of Voice the other day … it’s totally not journalism, it’s marketing. It’s a good way of getting the brand out there, however it’s a pity they have to make it an advertising feature. Some of those articles should be in the main part of the paper.
October 9, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Correction: I just found out that the Telegraaf has a Sunday edition, purely because it’s been announced today that the Sunday version won’t exist any more after 1 January due to lack of advertising interest.