Before the era of instant push notifications from global sports conglomerates, local newspapers were the undisputed kings of regional football coverage. In the spring of 2015, the Dagblad van het Noorden (DVHN) took out a full-page ad in the FC Groningen matchday programme to promote something revolutionary for the time: their newly updated smartphone app.
The advertisement is a brilliant visual time capsule. It features a fan holding up a chunky, early-generation smartphone against the backdrop of the Euroborg pitch. The screen displays the DVHN app with the headline “FC Groningen levert strijd tot het eind” (FC Groningen fights until the end). The bullet points promise “alerts bij breaking news” and free access to premium articles for subscribers. In 2015, transitioning print subscribers to digital platforms was the biggest battle local publishers faced.
While the ad pushed digital innovation on the left page, the right page celebrated analog, grassroots football success: Arjen Jorritsma‘s FC Groningen D1 (Under-13) team, who had recently pulled off a memorable 4-3 victory over the mighty Ajax D1. The contrast is poetic. As the media landscape was rapidly digitizing and shrinking the world, the physical, muddy reality of beating Ajax’s prestigious academy remained the purest form of local pride.
A Look into the Future
By 2026, the concept of downloading a newspaper app seems quaint; news is now consumed via fragmented social algorithms, short-form video, and AI-curated feeds. Yet, the Dagblad van het Noorden remains a vital institution in the north. The “breaking news alerts” that were a novelty in 2015 are now a ubiquitous, sometimes overwhelming, part of daily life. The young boys from the D1 team who beat Ajax in 2015 grew up entirely in this digital age, their careers tracked not in printed newspaper columns, but in digital metrics and viral clips.