Rules or bylaws ensure the strict separation between editorial and advertising departments. The interviewed journalists were, on principle, opposed to any outside influence, independence being of prime value to them.
Journalists and editors-in-chief did not feel any pressure from advertisers, nor from owners. The editorial statutes guaranteed editorial freedom even when it appeared to go against the interests of an important advertiser or the sales department. All our interviewees, including Piet Bakker and Huub Evers, categorically rejected any influence from advertisers on editorial content. Advertising clients were diverse, without undue influence from any one of them. Some interviewees recalled rare cases of advertisers threatening to withdraw important advertising budgets over several years, without such incidents hindering critical reporting.
However, one of the newspaper journalists we interviewed pointed out the grey areas between journalistic articles and advertisements. He especially highlighted travel, leisure, or fashion journalism in magazines or weekend newspaper supplements where there were editorial influences by the sales department. Moreover, the risk of interference from advertisers, politicians, or other important figures is much higher at a local or regional level because of the closer relationships between journalists and the subjects they are reporting on. For instance, a potentially relevant news story may not come out because freelancers at the local or regional level are financially dependent on one or more of its actors.
None of the media organisations under study said they were dependent on one or several advertisers. As mentioned earlier, the risk is much higher for regional and local media, as well as for media houses that focus on niche sectors such as cars, finance, or fashion, owing to the small market size. Leading national news media organisations do not face such an issue. Furthermore, being part of a larger media company is beneficial in this case, since such a company is better able to survive potential losses of advertising revenue. For instance, BNR Nieuwsradio is still in existence only thanks to the support of the Financieel Dagblad newspaper – which may or may not help it survive the current Covid-19 crisis.
Advertising on the public broadcasting media is organised via the Foundation Advertising on Radio and Television, which allocates advertising airtime to various NPO media platforms and collects their proceedings. Revenue was originally transferred to the government that further placed it in a fund intended to help newspapers experiencing temporary difficulties. This fund was managed by the Press Fund, created in 1974. In 2014, the fund renamed itself the Journalism Fund, with a view towards stimulating the quality, diversity, independence, and innovation of the journalistic infrastructure in the Netherlands. The original financing mechanism for loss of advertising revenue in the print media has also been abandoned. At the same time, the Foundation Advertising on Radio and Television secures the independence of NOS with respect to advertisers and media agencies.
Interestingly, another relevant finding has been the news media’s development of other business models to secure their independence. For instance, the Groene Amsterdammer and VersBeton have largely switched to donation and subscriber formulas, making advertising revenues marginal. Online advertising is not very lucrative, and above all, it is described as disruptive. FTM made it a unique selling position to ban advertising completely as a way to underline its credibility and editorial independence. For instance, writing about the bank sector while raising money from it via advertising is viewed as sending the wrong signal to the readership.
