Weekly magazine Nieuwe Revu is ending its contract with convicted kidnapper and blackmailer Willem Holleeder because his columns are not cost effective.

The weekly magazine started publishing the columns in September last year. Although they are a success in terms of content, they have not succeeded in generating enough extra sales to justify the cost, editor-in-chief Erik Noomen is quoted as saying by Nos television.

The magazine was paying Holleeder €2,000 a week for the columns, Nos said. The money ‘very probably’ went directly to the state, which has an outstanding multi-million euro claim against Holleeder.

Last July, a court in Haarlem ordered Holleeder to repay nearly €18m which he is said to have made from blackmailing three businessmen.

Holleeder’s last column will appear on March 6. He told showbusiness television show SBS Shownieuws he was sorry the project was stopping. ‘Before I started, I thought it would never work and I never expected to like it so much,’ Holleeder said.

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