Mapping the Dutch Film Magazine Market, 1920-1960

Item does not contain fulltextIn the United States, fan magazines formed an integral part of the film industry from the early 1910s onwards. The reciprocal relationship between film press and the cinema trade in a small cinema economy 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 (mostly ailing) Dutch film industry, roughly between 1920 and 1960. The most thriving era of the Dutch film magazine was during the interwar decades. Entrepreneur Pier Westerbaan combined the roles of reporter, editor, publisher and printer in producing the fan magazine Cinema en theater, besides a trade journal, and many other printed matters such as programmes, posters and periodicals. His strong network in the cinema business community (especially with distributors and exhibitors), and the broad, general interest formula of his fan magazine contributed to Westerbaan’s success. Judging from the availability and survival rate of Dutch movie magazines, 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. A number of daily newspapers and women’s magazines had shaken their pre-war reserve about reporting on movies and stars and their weekly film rubrics proved heavy competition in the, apparently, limited Dutch market for illustrated press coverage on cinema. Apart from the fan magazines aimed at the general movie going audiences, more marginal, specialized journals have appeared since the 1920s, targeted at specific niche markets of cinephiles or Catholic film viewers. These journals did not have strong ties to the Dutch cinema industry as a commercial undertaking.19 oktober 201