Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) is a Dutch publishing group of fiction and nonfiction books that is active also in Belgium. It operates through multiple units. Its headquarters are located in Utrecht. The company is a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster.
Bosch & Keuning was founded in 1925 when the name of Christian publisher E.J. Bosch J.Bzn was coupled with that of his companion Pieter Keuning. In 1997 the graphical activities were split from Bosch & Keuning, after which the company expanded as a publisher. In 1999 Veen Uitgevers Groep spun off from publishing group Wolters Kluwer. Veen referred to L.J. Veen, founder of one of the units, founded in 1887. In the Spring of 2001 Veen and Bosch & Keuning merged into Veen Bosch & Keuning.
The Noordelijke Dagblad Combinatie merged in March 2005 with Veen Bosch & Keuning to form NDC|VBK. ThiemeMeulenhoff was also part of the media conglomerate. On 1 June 2007, the NDC Mediagroep was established as the subsidiary of NDC|VDK that would handle interests in periodicals, radio and TV. The group's interest in radio and TV was temporary. In late 2012 the VBK and ThiemeMeulenhoff book publication activities were spun off. As a result, the NDC|VBK became obsolete and VBK, ThiemeMeulenhoff, NDC Mediagroep became independent companies again.
In December 2017 Veen Bosch & Keuning acquired Bruna. [1] [2] In 2019, it sold Bruna to the Audax Groep, who already owned AKO, Bruna's main competitor.
In May 2024, Simon & Schuster acquired Veen Bosch & Keuning. The acquisition includes all of VBK's imprints in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as its sister companies, the audiobook producer Thinium, and Bookchoice, a subscription-based platform for e-books and audiobooks. This is the first expansion of Simon & Schuster into a non-English market. [3]
Van Dale Lexicografie publishes the Van Dale dictionary, the authoritative Dutch-language dictionary. It also publishes bilingual dictionaries for other languages, translated from and to Dutch, and offers language courses and translation services.
Parent company | Veen Bosch & Keuning |
---|---|
Status | Active |
Founded | 1851 (Sijthoff), 1947 (Luitingh) 1989 (merged) |
Founder | Albertus Willem Sijthoff |
Country of origin | Netherlands |
Headquarters location | Amsterdam |
Distribution | Dutch language market |
Imprints | Luitingh, Sijthoff, Poema Pocket, Luitingh Fantasy, Uitgeverij Luitingh, Mouria |
Official website | luitingh-sijthoff.nl |
Luitingh-Sijthoff releases fiction and nonfiction books for the Dutch language market.
The A.W. Sijthoff company was founded by Albertus Willem Sijthoff in Leiden in 1851 and Luitingh was established in 1947. [4] Sijthoff, who rose to prominence in the trade of translated books, was opposed to a petition for the Netherlands to become a signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1899 because he felt that the international copyright restrictions would stifle the country's publishing industry. [5] The Sijthoff office was attacked by car bomb after the Haagsche Courant , owned at the time by the Sijthoff family, printed a negative article about business activities in the 1980s by a collection agency owned by Dutch criminal Eef Hoos. [6]
In 1989, the A.W. Sijthoff and Luitingh publishing companies merged to form Luitingh-Sijthoff, [4] which is headquartered in Amsterdam. [7]
The books in Luitingh-Sijthoff's catalogue are published under a number of specialized imprints, including Luitingh, Luitingh Fantasy, Mouria, Poema-Pocket, Sijthoff, and Uitgeverij L. [4] Luitingh publishes Dutch versions of popular English language novels by writers that include Dan Brown, Michael Crichton, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Robert Ludlum and Thomas Harris. [4] Since its establishment in 1992, the Luitingh Fantasy imprint publishes authors Raymond E. Feist, Terry Goodkind, Bernhard Hennen, Robin Hobb, Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin. [4] Poema-Pocket is a publisher of mass market paperbacks by popular fiction authors Patricia Cornwell, Jill Mansell and Danielle Steel. [4] Sijthoff publishes thrillers and nonfiction books for casual readers, including De zaak Natalee Holloway (The Case of Natalee Holloway) by Joran van der Sloot. [8] Since 2005, Uitgeverij L (Publishing House L) publishes cartoon collections and graphic novels and by comic book authors such as Christophe Arleston and Martin Lodewijk as well as manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka. [4]
Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.
Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot is a Dutch murderer who was convicted in the 2010 killing of Stephany Flores Ramírez in Lima, Peru. He first came to public attention as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005.
Jossy Mehsen Mansur was the editor of the Papiamento-language newspaper Diario in Aruba. He wrote two dictionaries for the Papiamento language and a history of Aruba among other books.
Natalee Ann Holloway was an 18-year-old American high school graduate from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who disappeared from the Caribbean island of Aruba on May 30, 2005. Her disappearance resulted in an international media sensation, especially in the United States. The prime suspect, Dutch national Joran van der Sloot, has made conflicting statements over the years about his involvement, including a confession to killing her. Holloway's remains have not been found.
DPG Media Group is a Belgian media company also active in the Netherlands and Denmark. The exact ownership structure is not clear; it is believed that the group is mainly owned by the Belgian Van Thillo family. The company employs about 6,000 people.
Mediahuis is a European multinational newspaper and magazine publishing, distribution, printing, television, radio and online media company founded in 2014 with assets in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Germany. Mediahuis publishes daily newspaper titles in Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland as well as regional titles, and is involved in broadcasting a number of Dutch and French language TV and radio stations.
Audax Groep is a Dutch print media and retail company, active also in Belgium. The publishing arm publishes magazines. It also produces and prints books, calendars, and flyers for other companies and builds websites. The Audax headquarters are located in Gilze.
Uitgeverij Lannoo Groep is a Belgian publishing group, based in Tielt, with assets in Belgium and the Netherlands. Its Belgian subsidiary is Uitgeverij Lannoo. Its Dutch subsidiary is LannooMeulenhoff. Over the years Lannoo evolved from Catholic and Flemish to an open, commercial publishing house.
Otto van Veen, also known by his Latinized names Otto Venius or Octavius Vaenius, was a painter, draughtsman, and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He is known for his paintings of religious and mythological scenes, allegories and portraits, which he produced in his large workshop in Antwerp. He further designed several emblem books, and was from 1594 or 1595 to 1598 the teacher of Rubens. His role as a classically educated humanist artist, was influential on the young Rubens, who would take on that role himself. He was court painter of successive governors of the Habsburg Netherlands, including the Archdukes Albert and Isabella.
Uitgeverij Prometheus is a Dutch publishing company whose main focus is on literature, history and language. It was founded by Mai Spijkers in 1989. Bert Bakker is a notable imprint of Prometheus.
Gerwin van der Werf is a Dutch author of novels, songwriter and instrumentalist. In April 2010 his first novel, 'de Gewapende Man,' was published by Uitgeverij Contact. In January 2010, his poem 'Misbruik' won the first prize in the Dutch Turing National Poetry Contest, a prestigious Dutch poetry contest.
De zaak Natalee Holloway: mijn eigen verhaal over haar verdwijning op Aruba is an autobiographical non-fiction book written by Joran van der Sloot with Zvezdana Vukojevic. It was released in 2007 in the Dutch language by Amsterdam-based publisher Sijthoff. An English version was not published.
Albertus Willem Sijthoff was a prominent Dutch publisher from Leiden, Netherlands.
August Aimé (Guus) Balkema, or A. A. Balkema, was a Dutch book trader and publisher active in Amsterdam and South Africa. He played a prominent role in the South African publishing world and was included in They shaped our century (1999), a list of the 100 most influential people in South Africa in the 20th century.
Wytze or Wietse Keuning was a Dutch school teacher, author and classical music critic. He was the co-author of three series of successful primary schoolbooks and one book of folk tales for young people. He wrote three novels situated in the northern part of Holland and a three-part three-volume fictionalized biography of Ashoka the Great. Keuning finished writing a two-part historical novel on Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, but died before the publication process was started.
Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a Dutch horror writer. His short stories have received the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, the Dutch Paul Harland Prize, and have been nominated for two additional Hugo Awards and a World Fantasy Award.
Max Schuchart MBE was a Dutch journalist, literary critic and translator. He is most famous for translating the works of J. R. R. Tolkien into the Dutch language.
Mediahuis Noord, formerly known as NDC Mediagroep, is a Dutch publisher of newspapers, magazines, and websites focused on the three northern provinces of the Netherlands: Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen. It is owned by Mediahuis, a Belgian company. Headquarters are in Leeuwarden, other offices are in Groningen and Meppel. In addition to three main provinces, NDC publishes and distributes also in the Kop van Overijssel, Noordoostpolder, and northern Flevoland.
Dwarsligger is a book printed with text parallel to the spine of a conventional 12cm book. The dwarsligger is published by Uitgeverij Dwarsligger, part of Veen Bosch & Keuning Uitgeversgroep (VBK).
Yap Goan Ho was a Chinese Indonesian translator, businessman, bookseller, and publisher based in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. In the 1880s and 1890s, he was one of the first Chinese Indonesians to own a printing press and the first to publish Chinese language novels in Malay language translations.