Foreign newspapers disappear from northern provinces

No foreign newspapers are on sale or available in libraries in northern provinces because getting them there is too expensive, reports the NRC.


Distribution company Van Gelderen has stopped its distribution of newspapers such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Financial Times, Le Monde and El País to Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe and Overijssel.
Opinion weeklies such as The Economist and Spiegel are being distributed by sister company Betapress but will arrive one day late, says NRC.
Van Gelderen says the sale of foreign newspapers has halved since the beginning of the economic crisis and it is now uneconomic to transport them to the north of the country.
Anyone wanting a newspaper on paper is advised to take a private subscription which will be sent by post. According to PostNL, it will arrive one day late.
‘I do not understand how a university city can allow this to happen,’ Hans Nieuwenhuis, professor of economics and management at Groningen university, told NRC. ‘It makes you feel as if you are in the middle of the bush.’
Will you no longer able to buy your favourite foreign paper? Have your say using the comment box below.

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