Derk Sauer is a Dutch media magnate and the founder of ''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' (''MT'') is an Amsterdam-based independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking to ...

''.

Biography

Sauer, a native of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, has considered himself a

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

in the past, having participated in Dutch left wing politics since his youth. He claims that the ' Red May' student protests of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1968, which happened while he was 15 years old, informed much of his political beliefs. He later rejected communist ideology and has described Mao as a "monster". He is a member of the Socialist Party of the Netherlands. Despite not speaking Russian, Sauer was approached by Russian journalists in 1989 while serving as an editor for a weekly paper in his native country. They were able to convince him to immigrate to Russia and begin working on establishing a newspaper. Sauer worked with his business partner Annemarie van Gaal to introduce

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

and

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, among other magazines through their publishing house 'Independent Media,' which was founded in 1992. Sauer founded ''

'', the first Western-produced

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

newspaper in Russia, as part of the new publishing house alongside the . Over the years, he became a successful media entrepreneur in Russia. In 2005 Sauer sold ''The Moscow Times'' to the Finnish

Sanoma Sanoma Corporation (, , formerly SanomaWSOY) is Finland's largest media group and a European education publisher. The company has media business in Finland and an education business in twelve European countries, including Belgium, Netherlands, ...

. in 2010 Sauer became one of the new owners of

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...

, company which purchased his previous holding Het Gesprek. In 2017 Sauer repurchased ''The Moscow Times''. He claimed that the paper could serve as a great medium for educating people abroad about underreported domestic subjects. He also helped hundreds of independent Russian journalists to settle in the Netherlands after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

References

Living people Businesspeople from Amsterdam Maoists Dutch newspaper publishers (people) The Moscow Times people Year of birth missing (living people) {{publish-bio-stub