As a shareholder, we safeguard the independence and continuity of journalistic titles.

Our role as a shareholder

The founders of the resistance newspaper Het Parool experienced first-hand that journalism is too important to be left to the interests of individual shareholders. In 1944, they therefore set up their own foundation, so that after the Second World War their newspaper could continue to be published on a not-for-profit basis. Stichting Democratie en Media is the legal successor to this foundation.

Our articles of association mandate that we promote pluralistic, opinion-forming media. Today, we do this as a mission-driven shareholder of DPG Media Nederland (14.27 percent) and De Correspondent (10 percent). We do not receive dividends and are a nonprofit organization.

DPG Media Netherlands

As a mission-driven minority shareholder of DPG Media Nederland, we protect pluralism and independence within the company. Thanks to our priority share, no national news organisation ( Trouw, de Volkskrant, Algemeen Dagblad, RTL Nieuws and NU.nl) can be sold without our permission. We can block a merger, demerger, dissolution or stock market listing. Nor can the company simply be sold.

We provide internal oversight of compliance with editorial independence and the agreements set out in the editorial statutes. At the annual shareholders’ meeting, we discuss important strategic developments and raise issues ourselves that are relevant to safeguarding pluralistic and independent media within the company.

We do not benefit financially from any growth or increase in value of DPG Media Nederland, as the share price is fixed by the articles of association. Nor do we receive any dividend.

For more information, visit mediastichtingen.nl

De Correspondent

To give journalistic innovation a positive boost, we invested in De Correspondent in 2014. We endorse the principles and mission of this journalistic platform, and particularly value the fact that it puts readers first and invites them to share their own knowledge and expertise. We hold a priority share, which gives us special voting rights. This allows us to safeguard the principles behind the platform – such as editorial independence and its advertising-free character – and to protect it against profit maximisation.