Vrij Nederland
Vrij Nederland is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The weekly magazine is traditionally intellectually left-wing, in recent years it became more centrist. It is one of the four most influential written media in its sector, along with Elsevier, De Groene Amsterdammer and HP/De Tijd, now all with a stagnating or dwindling readership of their printed media. Publisher of Vrij Nederland is WPG Media in Amsterdam.
The offices are in a monumental building from 1914 on Raamgracht 4, on the corner with the Kloveniersburgwal.
The first issue was published on 31 August 1940. The chief editors have included:
- 1940–1942: Frans Hofker
- 1941–1950: Henk van Randwijk
- 1950–1955: Johan Winkler
- 1955–1969:
- 1969–1991: Rinus Ferdinandusse
- 1991–1997: Joop van Tijn
- 1998–2000: Oscar Garschagen
- 2001–2004: Xandra Schutte
- 2004–2005: Gerard van Westerloo
- 2005–2008: Emile Fallaux
- 2008–2015: Frits van Exter
- 2017–present: Ward Wijndelts
The circulation has decreased from 1945 on, except for an increase in the 1970s:
- 1945: 109,000
- 1947: 32,000
- 1951: 35,000
- 1955: 19,000
- 1960: 23,000
- 1965: 36,950
- 1970: 81,378
- 1975: 109,381
- 1978: 117,165
- 1980: 111,857
- 1985: 97,132
- 1990: 76,947
- 2000: 55,947
- 2001: 53,669
- 2002: 53,413
- 2003: 52,868
- 2004: 50,124
- 2005: 49,244
- 2006: 47,082
- 2007: 46,671
- 2008: 44,115
- 2009: 44,860
- 2010: 48,353
- 2011: 45,534
- 2012: 40,872
- 2013: 35,649
- 2014: 31.623
- 2015: 22.937
- 2016: 19.875
