De Bezige Bij splits from WPG to go independent again
De Bezige Bij, the Amsterdam publisher born as a wartime resistance press, is independent again after finalising its split from Weekblad Pers Groep (WPG) in late summer 2026.
The separation, reported on 1 October 2026, ends almost three decades of group ownership in the Dutch market, Publishing Perspectives reported. It puts the house back on its own footing.
The publisher was founded in 1944 as a clandestine operation during the Nazi occupation by a group of students in the resistance. Clandestine meant working in secret under occupation. After World War II it became a cooperative publishing house, meaning it was jointly owned and run, and moved into a building on Van Miereveldstraat in Amsterdam. It still works from the same address.
De Bezige Bij merged with WPG in 1997. WPG traces its roots to Vrij Nederland, meaning Free Netherlands, a progressive Dutch weekly. The link lasted 29 years before the summer split.
Group ownership means a larger company controls budgets and strategy. Independence hands those decisions back to the publisher itself.
The house is now led by publishing director Romy van den Nieuwenhof, the executive who decides which books to sign, and rights director Marijke Nagtegaal, the executive who sells translation rights to publishers in other countries. Translation rights let foreign houses issue local-language editions. A publisher's list means the books it releases in a season.
Van den Nieuwenhof joined in 2020 as sales and marketing director and became publishing director three years later at age 36. Nagtegaal had worked at the house for 14 years at the time of the October 2026 report. She knows the backlist well.
Money is tight. The publisher posted losses of €2 million for two years in a row, according to Van den Nieuwenhof. In early 2024, WPG had been rumoured to be in talks about merging with Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK), described as the Netherlands' largest commercial publishing house. That merger was rumour, not an announced deal.
What makes this stand out is the circle. A press that started underground now has to make independence pay for itself. For readers, this means the name on the spine stays the same while the business behind it changes.
