What is the ANP?
The ANP is a Dutch news agency. On its own account it sits «aan de basis van het nieuws» and supplies «dagelijks feitelijk nieuws aan vrijwel alle Nederlandse media», with «250 nieuwsberichten … dagelijks te gebruiken», «zo'n 250 medewerkers» and «100 miljoen foto's … in de database van het ANP». It also states that it has offered public relations and communication services through ANP Connect since 2022. Those are the agency's own figures and its own account of its own services.[1]
Its ownership has changed three times in the period covered by its own announcements. The ANP announced on 28 March 2018 that Talpa Network had acquired all shares from Vereniging Veronica, which had held them since 2010, quoting John de Mol that «het ANP is van groot belang voor de Nederlandse journalistiek en is een efficiënte nieuwsmaker die mediabedrijven voorziet van kwalitatief, feitelijk juist nieuws».[4] It announced on 28 May 2021 that Talpa Network had sold the agency to the investor Chris Oomen.[2]
On each occasion the agency's management addressed its editorial statute in the same terms. In 2018: «het redactiestatuut staat niet ter discussie. Onze nieuwsvoorziening blijft snel, feitelijk en onafhankelijk».[4] In 2021: «Chris Oomen heeft zich uitgesproken voor onze kernwaarden en de journalistieke onafhankelijkheid … hij onderschrijft onze maatschappelijke rol en waarborgt de redactiestatuten».[2] These are statements by the agency about the agency.
What does the ANP cover?
The agency describes its output as daily factual news supplied to virtually all Dutch media, with about 250 items available for use each day across its newsroom and a photographic database of 100 million images.[1]
Alongside the editorial wire it runs a press portal on which organisations distribute their own statements under their own credit. The KNVB's membership announcement of 21 November 2025 — «het ledenaantal steeg dit seizoen naar 1.261.967, een historische toename van 21.530 leden ten opzichte van vorig jaar» — was carried there credited to the KNVB rather than written by the agency, which is a distinction worth keeping: material on the portal is the issuing organisation's, not the agency's.[3]
Sport therefore reaches Dutch outlets through the ANP in two forms: agency copy, and federations' and clubs' own releases distributed through the portal. See football.
How large is the ANP's audience?
No audited audience, subscriber or circulation measurement for the ANP could be retrieved from any source consulted, and no measurement currency for Dutch news agencies could be identified. The Nationaal Media Onderzoek measures television, radio, print and online for the Dutch market; it does not publish a currency for wire services.
The figures that exist are the agency's own: about 250 news items a day, around 250 employees and a database of 100 million photographs. The agency's own pages carry no date against those figures.[1]
One indirect and dated measure of standing is that other outlets report on the agency itself: the NOS covered its change of ownership on 28 May 2021, giving the buyer's description of the agency as «onderdeel van het Nederlands maatschappelijk erfgoed» and noting that the parties did not disclose a price.[5] That is evidence of prominence, not a measurement of reach, and it is not offered as one.
Since when has the ANP existed?
The agency dates itself from 1934 in its own words: «sinds 1934 maakt het ANP zich hard voor feitelijk gecheckt nieuws».[1] NPO Radio 1's Terug naar toen gives the founding more precisely, as 11 December 1934: «Op die dag werd het ANP, het Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau opgericht».[6] No instrument of establishment could be retrieved.
The ownership dates are separate. Vereniging Veronica held the shares from 2010; Talpa Network acquired all of them in a transaction the agency announced on 28 March 2018;[4] and Talpa Network sold the agency to Chris Oomen in a transaction the agency announced, and the NOS reported, on 28 May 2021.[2][5]
A founding year, a change of shareholder and the launch of a service line are three different dates; 11 December 1934 is the first, 2010, 2018 and 2021 the second, and the agency gives 2022 for the start of ANP Connect.[1]
Why does the ANP matter in Dutch sport?
Because a large part of Dutch sports reporting is distributed rather than separately gathered. The agency states that it supplies daily factual news to virtually all Dutch media, which makes it the common upstream source for results and announcements carried by titles that compete downstream.[1]
Its press portal is also where sports bodies place their own statements. The KNVB's figure of 1,261,967 members reached the market through that portal on 21 November 2025 under the KNVB's own credit.[3]
Its ownership matters for the same reason. An agency whose copy appears in nearly every Dutch outlet has been owned in turn by a broadcasting association, a commercial media group and a private investor within eleven years, and on each change the question addressed publicly was the standing of its editorial statute.[4][2] See the Netherlands.
References
- ANP — Over ANP: the agency’s own account of its output, staff, photo database, the year 1934 and ANP Connect. Accessed 2026-09-20.
- ANP — Talpa Network verkoopt het ANP aan Chris Oomen, 28 May 2021. Accessed 2026-09-20.
- ANP Persportaal — Voetbal blijft groeien: KNVB ledenaantal stijgt wederom, 21 November 2025, credited to the KNVB. Accessed 2026-09-20.
- ANP Persportaal — Talpa Network neemt het ANP over, 28 March 2018. Accessed 2026-09-20.
- NOS — Talpa verkoopt persbureau ANP aan investeerder Chris Oomen, 28 May 2021. Accessed 2026-09-20.
- NPO Radio 1 — Terug naar toen: oprichting Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau, 11 December 1934. Accessed 2026-09-20.