End of an era: 46 years of Observant in print

• The first issue of Observant was published on 6 October 1980. The main headline read “Students to pay their share of budget cuts”
   

  

   

• Over 46 years, Observant published 1,486 issues. In total, around 10 million copies rolled off the presses.
   

• Observant began life as a monthly publication. Its first year comprised nine issues. That soon increased to twenty, and by the early 1990s it had become a weekly newspaper, appearing 37 times per year. Come rain or shine, copies were always delivered to one of the 28 newspaper racks across all university buildings. The only exception came during the Covid pandemic, when lockdowns forced Observant entirely online for a year and a half. After that, we went back to publishing 30 issues per year.
   

• Our logo changed five times.
   

• The first colour photograph appeared on the front page on 18 January 1996. It showed a painting to mark Maastricht University’s 20th anniversary.

  

  This proved to be an exception: Observant largely remained a black-and-white publication for years, as colour printing was too expensive. It wasn’t until 13 November 2008 that the newspaper was first printed entirely in colour.
   

• The first English-language section appeared in the 19 December 1996 issue. At first, space was set aside every four weeks for a handful of translated articles; this later became a weekly feature. The headline of the very first English-language article shows why:

  

  It wasn’t until September 2021 that the newspaper became a fully bilingual publication. The original translators, Paul and Brenda Nekeman, remained involved with Observant for nearly 28 years, until they retired in 2024.
   

• From 1 January 1998, the print edition faced digital competition: that was when the first Observant website was launched. On 27 August 2015, the first digital newsletter was sent out to subscribers’ inboxes.
   

• Following the introduction of a guest column in its 2nd year, columns quickly became an indispensable part of Observant. Former Rector Magnificus Hans Philipsen can rightly be called the most prolific columnist: after his retirement in 2002, he wrote more than six hundred columns under the pen name “Oracle Emeritus” until he decided to hang up his pen in 2019, at the age of nearly 84. Coming a close second is Professor Evelyne de Leeuw, whose weekly columns appeared on the back page between 1985 and 1997 under various pseudonyms (most notably *Eva*). The most enigmatic columnist was undoubtedly Albert Bergbroeder, the pseudonym of former senior editor Wammes Bos, whose satirical gossip column ran (with some interruptions) from 2009 to 2018 and sparked much speculation about the author’s true identity.
   

• Among Observant’s many series and recurring features, Message from Maastricht – reports from around the city – enjoyed the longest run, appearing continuously on the back page between 1986 and 1998. The personal profiles of students and staff in Sing, fight, cry, pray, laugh, work and admire have also proved popular. Since its launch in 2010, the series has appeared (with a few interruptions) over ten publishing years.
   

• The final printed issue will appear on 18 June 2026.

Dennis Vaendel, Cleo Freriks