reference to the liberal declaration of Oxford, or Oxford Manifesto, which offered guarantees of editorial continuity for readers and journalists even in the event of the newspaper being sold. Frans Vink, the son-in-law of Julius Hoste Jr., headed the company; Albert Maertens helped to manage the structure of the company, and Marcel Stijns remained the head editor. A new company was created: the Uitgeverij J. Hoste NV. When television broadcasting started in Belgium in 1954, the competitive environment became more challenging and the newspaper had to modernize its activity. The Antwerp-headquartered De Nieuwe Gazet was taken over, partially in 1957 and then completely in 1963. The foundation's business was expanded with the introduction of weekly magazines and a printing business. In order to finance the new ventures, negotiations were started with potential investors. Albert Maertens began talks with the Van Thillo family, the Flemish bankers based in Antwerp, who had shown a particular interest in Press investment. In the 1970s and 1980s the Van Thillo family acquired more and more shares in the newspaper, but its editorial course remained in accordance with the principles articulated by the foundation. At the moment DPG Media is headed by Christian Van Thillo. The Laatste Nieuws grew since 1995 from an extremely sensation-oriented (liberal) newspaper to a sensation-oriented, popular-populist newspaper, with particular attention to ‘the people in and behind the news’. The newspaper includes regional, national and limited international news. The Laatste News is published in 21 regional editions, each with the same part with international and limited international news, but each also with a few pages of news from the different flemish regions. The paper also had an extended sports-part. The newspaper’s website hln.be is very popular in Flanders (top 10 most visited sites in Belgium since 2016, according to the CIM statistics), and is characterized by its regularly updated, sensational articles, often with clickbait-titles. Circulation In the period of 1995-96 Het Laatste Nieuws had a circulation of 303,993 copies. The circulation of the paper was 287,000 copies in 2001. It was 341,257 copies in 2002. In 2003 its circulation was 294,000 copies, making it the best selling newspaper in Belgium. In 2009 Het Laatste Nieuws had a circulation of 287,162 copies. The approximate circulation of the paper was 370,000 copies in 2010. Notable journalists Piet Van Brabant (1932-2006) References External links Newspapers in the class room 1888 establishments in Belgium Dutch-language newspapers