Hak Holdert

Hendrikus Marinus Cornelis "Hak" Holdert (4 June 1870 – 21 July 1944) was a Dutch newspaper publisher, printer, and press magnate.

Early life Hak Holdert was born in Salatiga, Java, on 4 June 1870, as the son of Antonius Hendrikus Holdert and Marie Louise Josephine Platte. However, the lack of interest shown by the clubs caused Holdert to withdraw his trophy, so the final between HFC and R.A.P. was canceled, In its first-ever final, held on 9 May 1899 at Koekamp, Heemstede, HVV Den Haag was defeated 1–0 by the RAP Amsterdam, the reigning national champion, whose captain Johan Schröder received the cup from the hands of its donator Holdert, and which now remains in the clubhouse of the Amsterdam club. At first, he specialized in printing business cards, particularly for women, with whom he had a natural rapport, and after a few years, the business became profitable, and in 1900, Holdert moved from his basement workshop to a large new printing facility on Van Ostadestraat street. Thanks to the financial backing from several investors, Holdert was able to take over the newspapers, revitalized them, expanded the editorial staff with renowned journalists, and transformed them into highly successful daily publications, with De Courant flourishing particularly well due to its lower price, and those profits were then used to financially support De Telegraaf. At the time, the most popular aspect of De Telegraaf was a children's newspaper published by Dutch writer Pieter Jacob Andriessen, which became so popular that Holdert became afraid that Andriessen would attempt to set up his own business, taking with him the children's newspaper and its subscribers, so to prevent that, Holdert staged a conflict with him in 1903 in order to fire Andriessen, who left in 1904, being replaced by Holdert's childhood friend Johan Schröder, a former football player and a notorious polemicist, who served as the editor-in-chief of De Telegraaf during the early 20th century. De Telegraaf went from 5,412 at the time of the takeover to over 23,000 in 1914, while De Courant went from 10,755 to over 154,000 in that same period.