AMSTERDAM — The newest English-language newspaper in the Netherlands begins publishing in The Hague on Friday. The Hague Times will de printed weekly and distributed to international businesses, embassies, hotels and cafes.

The IMCA Media Group — owned by Dutch businessman Erik de Vlieger — says The Hague Times will be a free newspaper and 25,000 copies will be printed every week.

Last September, IMCA launched The Amsterdam Times, which covers local news in the capital, sports, business event listings and a centre-piece interview with a Dutch or international  personality.

In the past eight months, according to IMCA, the Amsterdam Times has increased its circulation by 10,000 copies a week to 45,000 copies. Its readership includes tourists, foreigners living in the city and Dutch people.

Like its Amsterdam counterpart, The Hague Times will be available free or via a subscription service, with the newspaper delivered directly to subscribers’ homes.

IMCA said the new weekly will feature news from The Hague and from the surrounding South Holland province, as well as national news, sports and economic news “with a Dutch slant”.

The Hague Times will also have a listings section and reviews of ongoing events. A two-page interview with a personality, plus “columns and information about life in the Netherlands will complete the eclectic mix of the newspaper,” the publisher says.

De Vlieger’s business interests include a charter airline, real estate and publishing. He made an unsuccessful bid to buy Amsterdam’s Dutch-language evening paper Het Parool before launching the Amsterdam Times.

He has spoken openly about wanting to launch English-language papers in Rotterdam and Utrecht and possibly starting a national newspaper, either in Dutch or English, some time in the future.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news + The Hague Times