Leeuwarden press malfunction disrupts delivery of Northern Dutch newspapers
A major technical malfunction at the Leeuwarden printing facility has prevented the Saturday print editions of several northern Dutch newspapers, including Dagblad van het Noorden, Leeuwarder Courant, and Friesch Dagblad, from being distributed to subscribers. The disruption also affected the regional print run of De Telegraaf, which did not appear in physical form in the northern provinces on Saturday, according to Dagblad van het Noorden.
The newspapers were unable to go to print due to a significant press failure that occurred overnight on Friday. According to reports from the affected media outlets, the issue followed a power outage and a subsequent system restart. “During that restart, some components broke,” the outlets reported.
As a result, subscribers across the region found no newspapers in their mailboxes on Saturday morning. However, all affected newspapers made their Saturday editions freely available online via their websites and apps, even for readers without subscriptions.
“We are doing everything possible to ensure that the presses will be operational again by tomorrow,” the publishers stated on their respective websites Saturday morning. “At this moment, it is still uncertain whether the Saturday editions can be printed later and delivered together with Monday’s paper.”
Earlier in the night, other national and regional papers such as De Telegraaf, NRC, and Noordhollands Dagblad—which are also partially printed in Leeuwarden—were able to complete part of their print runs before the press failure occurred.
