Jan van der Pluijm

Jan van der Pluijm

Jan Marcel Mathieu van der Pluijm (March 1, 1920 - May 20, 1988 ) was a Dutch journalist . From 1964 to 1982 he was editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper de Volkskrant .

Life

Van der Pluijm had to interrupt a course he had started at Tilburg University because of the war . After the war, he continued his studies at the International Institute of Journalism in Rome and then in Tilburg, and finally graduated as an economist. After completing his studies, he worked for the Trouw and de Stem newspapers until 1950 . He then worked for the Secretariat of the International Christian Trade Union Confederation until 1953. On June 1 of that year he became editor of the “Economic and Social Affairs” department at de Volkskrant , the organ of the Catholic labor movement. At that time, Van der Pluijm was an exception in his newspaper as an academic and thus assumed a kind of pioneering role. In 1955 he was appointed employee representative on the supervisory board, and in 1962 he took over the chairmanship of the Catholic Journalists' Ring.

After the first post-war editor-in-chief, Joop Lücker, resigned after a series of differences of opinion with the management, Van der Pluijm was initially appointed temporarily and after a short time permanently appointed as the new editor-in-chief. He did not seek this position at first, but then resolutely stood up for the editorial office and forbade attempts by the publisher, the Nederlands Katholiek Vakverbond (NKV), to interfere with editorial independence. In contrast to his predecessor, he stood for a more democratic leadership style; the fact that he also received expressions of loyalty from editors and employees who had had a good relationship with Lücker ultimately gave him a broad base of trust in the protracted upheaval that was now imminent for the newspaper.

One of the first visible signs that social change had an impact on the newspaper was the deletion of the subheading “Katholiek dagblad voor Nederland” from the front page in September 1965. Although Van der Pluijm made every effort to ensure that de Volkskrant would remain a Catholic newspaper, and years later he reiterated the seriousness of the idea at the time, the change within the newspaper could no longer be stopped. The outcome of the Second Vatican Council and the appointment of two conservative bishops in 1970 caused a great disappointment for many in the editorial team. Van der Pluijm's resignation from the Church that year was a step that quite a number of this group had already taken before. A few years later, de Volkskrant had become a left wing with a high level of education. The 1968 merger with the social democratic daily Het Parool and the entry of the Protestant Trouw in 1975 finally embedded de Volkskrant in the context of a media group.

After a tough process lasting years, Van der Pluijm had achieved his goal of institutionalized democratization of the editorial team. In 1973 an editorial statute came into force, and an editorial council was set up. In the 1970s, under Van der Pluijm, concern journalism spread, and the newspaper increasingly saw itself as a critical supporter of the left wing of the ruling party PvdA . Both met with criticism, the deputy editor-in-chief Jan Blokker , who was appointed in 1979 , ultimately contributed to pushing back the aforementioned concern journalism.

In 1980, Van der Pluijm began to look for a successor for him as a member of a selection committee, and Harry Lockefeer , the head of the “Economic and Social Affairs” department , was ultimately chosen . In May 1981 he was initially appointed as deputy editor-in-chief alongside Blokker and finally inherited Van der Pluijm in March 1982. Despite the radical changes that de Volkskrant wrested from its Catholic background, reorganized internally and led it into a media network, Van der Pluijm was able to succeed Look back years; during his time as editor-in-chief, the circulation increased almost continuously. After leaving the newspaper, Van der Pluijm became the first chairman of the newly founded Amsterdam broadcasting company SALTO at the end of 1983 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Van Vree, p. 120
2. ↑ Leeuwarder Courant , December 12, 1983 edition

literature

• Joan Hemels: De emancipatie van een dagblad. Geschiedenis van de Volkskrant. Ambo, Baarn 1981. ISBN 90-263-0537-0
• Frank de Vree: De metamorfose van een dagblad. A journalistieke is divorced from the Volkskrant. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 1996. ISBN 90-290-5379-8
• Martin Sommer: Krantebeest - JM Lücker. Triomf en tragiek van een courantier. Uitgeverij Balans, Amsterdam 1993. ISBN 90-5018-214-3