The Dutch newspaper Volkskrant has apologised after it tested its new app by publishing a story wrongly reporting the death of Johan Cruyff.
The story, headlined “Johan Cruyff deceased”, was supposed to be part of an internal software test but went live by mistake, and quickly spread on social networks before it was taken down.
The paper’s editor, Philippe Remarque, called it a “stupid mistake”, and apologised to Cruyff, the former Ajax and Holland forward and manager of Barcelona.
“On behalf of Volkskrant I offer my apologies to Johan Cruyff and anyone who has been upset by this,” he said. “The app was tested this morning with fake stories, and a technician came up with this as a way of testing a major breaking news story. By mistake it appeared with this headline.”
The paper tweeted: “Due to an error on our new test site, we accidentally published a message about the death of Johan Cruyff. We’re sorry.”
Wegens een fout op onze nieuwe testsite is per ongeluk een bericht over de dood van Johan Cruijff op onze website verschenen. Onze excuses.
— De Volkskrant (@volkskrant) August 19, 2014
The Dutch news blog Welingelichte Kringen said the story had “sent a shudder across Twitter and throughout the country”.