NOS Sport has a new editor-in-chief: Gert-Jaap Hoekman succeeds Maarten Nooter

Gert-Jaap Hoekman will be the new editor-in-chief of NOS Sport. That has just been announced to the editors. Hoekman, who is still editor-in-chief of NU.nl, succeeds Maarten Nooter, who had resigned when abuses about culture came to light at the sports editors.

Much has been said and written in recent months. I am especially looking forward to building something great with all my new colleagues,” said 42-year-old Hoekman in a first reaction. After ten years, he will exchange the editor-in-chief of NU.nl for NOS Sport on September 1. There he will be responsible for the editorial and journalistic direction. “It is a great honor to be able to lead the largest sports editorial team in the Netherlands.”

One of Hoekman’s first tasks is to form a new editor-in-chief, because the entire editor-in-chief of NOS Sport stepped down on March 12. The decision was taken ‘in mutual consultation’ with the NOS management, after the four-member leadership – in addition to Nooter, also deputy editors-in-chief Pim Marks, Selma Schuurman and Ewoud van Winsen – had come under fire.

An article appeared a few days before de Volkskrant in which it was written that presenter Tom Egbers, among others, would have shown transgressive behavior at the sports editors. De Volkskrant had conversations with 32 employees about the culture at NOS Sport. A picture emerged in which, among others, a number of iconic people, including presenters, commentators and reporters, consider themselves untouchable and are structurally held over their heads. The editors-in-chief would not have been sufficiently aware of how toxic the working atmosphere was.

More than a hundred reports

The working atmosphere has not been good at NOS Sport for some time. External confidential advisers received more than a hundred reports of abuses in the last period. That was about specific reports, but also about the culture that prevailed in the editorial office. It would be too focused on results and not enough on the employees.

The NOS itself apologized to those reporting abuses, which were often not done about. After the NOS reported this, many stories were released, including from journalist and former professional cyclist Marijn de Vries and presenter Aïcha Marghadi. They both left NOS.