Het Nederlandse filmtijdschrift en de markt

The Dutch film magazine and the market In the United States, fan magazines formed an integral part of the industry from the early 1910s onwards. The reciprocal relationship between film press and the cinema trade in a small country such as the Netherlands has hardly been the object of study. This contribution explores the history of the film magazine in the context of the Dutch film industry (roughly 1920-1960). The most flourishing era of the film magazine was during the interwar years. Entrepeneur Pier Westerbaan combined the roles of journalist, publisher and printer in producing the fan magazine Cinema en theater, a trade journal, and many other printed matters such as programmes, posters and periodicals. His strong network in the cinema business community, and the broad, general interest formula of his fan magazine contributed to Westerbaans succes. The period after World War II proved to be less prosperous: popular film periodicals had relatively short lifespans, and after 1952 no Dutch fan magazine of substance appeared for decades. Apart from the fan magazines aimed at the general moviegoing audiences, more marginal, specialized journals have appeared since the 1920s, targeted at specific niche markets of cinephiles or Catholics. These journals did not have strong ties to the Dutch cinema industry as a commercial undertaking.