NRC Handelsblad

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The February 2, 2006 front page of NRC Handelsblad (Olympic Games).
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	57 cm x 41.5 cm

Owner	PCM Uitgevers
Founded	merged in 1970 (1828 & 1844)
Price	EUR 1.40 Monday-Friday & EUR 2.50 Saturday
Headquarters	Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Website: www.nrc.nl

NRC Handelsblad is a Dutch evening newspaper.

NRC Handelsblad started at October 1, 1970 after a merger of the Amsterdam newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad (founded in 1828 by J.W. van den Biesen) and the Rotterdam-based Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (founded in 1844 by Henricus Nijgh). The paper's motto is Lux et Libertas – Light (referring to the Age of Enlightenment) and Freedom.

NRC Handelsblad (usually referred to as 'de NRC' or, less often, 'het Handelsblad') markets to the higher income, higher educated, populace. Its main competitors in the Netherlands are De Volkskrant, which caters to a younger audience, and Het Financieele Dagblad, The Netherlands' only businesspaper. NRC Handelsblad concentrates on politics, economy, opinion, science, art and literature.

However, like newspapers in many other countries, NRC Handelsblad suffers from the declining number of people willing to read a newspaper every day. NRC Handelsblad has sought new ways to attach its readers more firmly to the newspaper, by offering extensive electronic services (like making the newspaper-archive available on the internet) and by opening a 'webshop' which sells books, tickets for lectures a DVD-line of European cinema and other things that fit in the 'brand'. In recent years several Dutch newspapers have started to switch to the tabloid model, which was previously unknown in the Netherlands, but still has a 'low quality' image that is quite the opposite of what NRC stand for. As from February 2006 NRC Handelsblad started a smaller, morning newspaper, nrc.next, intended to attract higher educated readers who don't read a newspaper on an everyday basis. This group is an ever growing part of the population in most western countries.

NRC Handelsblad is currently part of PCM Uitgevers NV, a publishing company which is also the owner of De Volkskrant, Algemeen Dagblad and Trouw.

The circulation of NRC was 242.195 in 2004 (against 265,000 in 2002). The total circulation of Dutch newspapers was 4.013.547 at the end of 2004.

The newspaper stated on 6 September 2006 that executive editor Folkert Jensma would retire from his function.