Page 61 of the matchday programme features a full-page advertisement that perfectly encapsulates the existential crisis of print media in the early 2010s. The regional giant, Dagblad van het Noorden (DVHN), bought the space to promote their subscription service: “LEES DVHN AL VANAF €3,00 PER WEEK” (Read DVHN from just €3.00 per week).
The visual design is clever: a tactical football chalkboard with X’s and O’s, framing a photograph of the physical, folded newspaper. But the true historical irony lies in the call to action. To subscribe to this physical bundle of paper, the reader is directed to a URL: www.dvhn.nl/abonneren. In 2013, newspapers were desperately trying to use the emerging digital world to save their analog product. They were pitching the tactile experience of reading the morning paper to a stadium full of fans who were increasingly getting their live score updates and transfer rumors from Twitter on their iPhones.
A Look into the Future
Looking at this ad from the perspective of 2026 is a stark reminder of how rapidly media consumption habits have changed. Today, there is an entire generation of young FC Groningen fans who have never held a physical broadsheet newspaper in their hands. The idea of paying a weekly fee to have yesterday’s news delivered to your doorstep feels archaic in an era of instant push notifications and TikTok highlights. DVHN survived the transition by successfully pivoting to a digital-first subscription model, but this 2013 advertisement stands as a monument to the final, desperate days of the print-first era.