IN MEMORIAM
Derk Sauer, 1952-2025
“What would Derk do?”
In 2025, we lost a close friend to the organisation: Derk Sauer passed away on 31 July as the result of a sailing accident. “Whether he was writing or speaking, I trusted his judgement,” a reader of Het Parool wrote. “He showed us Russia in a way we could
never have understood it ourselves.”
Text: Hans Nijenhuis
What that reader may not know is that, in addition to being a columnist for more than thirty years, Derk was also a member of the foundation that safeguards the newspaper’s identity. And what is even less known is that this came about because Derk once considered buying the paper.
Here is how it happened. After the war, Het Parool – founded as an underground resistance newspaper – grew into the largest title within what would eventually become publishing group PCM. In the 1980s, performance declined, and by the mid-1990s it had become clear that the Amsterdam-based paper was no longer profitable. A newly appointed editorial leadership team had ideas for improvement, but PCM management at the time proposed a different solution: dismiss the staff and offer subscribers a choice between two other PCM titles, de Volkskrant and NRC.
Stichting Het Parool, then the majority shareholder, decided that those “young upstarts” on the main editorial team should be given a chance. A plan was developed in 2002 and, remarkably, a wide range of interested parties came forward: financial investors, Quote Media, De Persgroep… and, from Moscow, Derk Sauer. From there, he was rapidly expanding his company Independent Media, taking a leaf out of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. “I have no ambition to run a newspaper in the Netherlands as well,” he said, “but if you really can’t find investors, I will step in and help.”
“How do you balance empathy with business decisions?”
But that was a bit too adventurous, even for the team at Het Parool. They preferred a solid publisher. So De Persgroep it was. But they did see a role on the new supervisory board for the energetic Derk. And indeed, those meetings were lively, recalls Frits Campagne, who had just been appointed director of Het Parool at the time. “Christian and Derk kept trying to outdo each other with one journalistic idea after another.”
Of course, that is not what supervisory board members are there for. But while you can always point to the role someone formally holds, what really matters is what is in their mind – is what Derk would’ve said. One year after the relaunch, Het Parool was named Best-Designed Regional Newspaper in Europe and recorded a modest profit.
After De Persgroep acquired the entire PCM group in 2009, Derk Sauer joined the board of Stichting Het Nieuwe Parool. In that capacity, he also spoke with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, which was assessing the planned acquisition of RTL. According to his own account, Derk argued that DPG Media had improved the titles it had acquired, not weakened them. That, on an international scale, DPG Media is a relatively small player, not a monopolist. And that the acquisition was necessary for media plurality, not a threat to it.
We weren’t there, of course, but we can imagine how it might have unfolded. “I’ve always greatly enjoyed the spirited way in which you explained how things should be done,” Frits Campagne wrote in a farewell letter to Derk at the end of July. Sadly, he was no longer able to read it himself, but many will recognise the sentiment.
“Throughout my entire career in media, when faced with dilemmas, doubts or moral challenges, I’ve often asked myself: What would Derk do?” wrote Het Parool editor-in-chief Jildou van der Bijl after his passing. “How do you balance empathy with business decisions? How do you ensure that meaningful stories aren’t overshadowed by the pursuit of growth and profit? How do you keep your courage when everyone else is afraid? Asking ‘What would Derk do?’ always helps me.”
And it will continue to do so.
