After the Second World War, society in the Netherlands began to change gradually at first and then in far-reaching ways. The overall process is referred to by sociologists and historians as depillarisation (ontzuiling). Until this point, Dutch society had been structured in vertical groupings according to people’s religion (Dutch Reformed Church or Catholic) or ideology (liberalism, socialism). Each of the ‘pillars’ had its own social and political organisations. It also possessed its own media: newspapers and magazines, followed by radio and, later, television. As the social and cultural boundaries between the pillars began to break down, so the market opened up, particularly for the various printed media, which were faced with serious competition. This competition came from newspapers and magazines that had been associated with the other pillars, but since the late 1950s it had also come from television.