The Business and Profit of Newspapers in the Southern Netherlands

Abstract

This article explores the often dire financial situations of early modern newspaper publishers in the Low Countries. It specifically analyses and contextualizes the business plan of the Gazette van Antwerpen around 1773, using a budget for a typical year that was incorporated in an essay written by the newspaper’s editor of the time, Jacob Van der Sanden. The article draws on the data given in this unknown source to compare the financial situation of the Gazette van Antwerpen with newspapers that were published in the Southern Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Furthermore, it compares Van der Sanden's budget with those of two newspapers published in Haarlem and Amsterdam in the same period.

Keywords

• Spanish Netherlands, booktrade, newspaper finances, news publishing, Gazette van Antwerpen